PARMA, Ohio — The Cuyahoga County Board of Health said scammers are attempting to gain personal information by posing as health department officials. 

The Cuyahoga County Board of Health said the scammers are calling victims with a number that displays as the department’s 216-201-2000 phone number. While the Board of Health said a robot is sending these calls, a live person comes on and asks for the victim’s Medicare information. 

The Cuyahoga County Board of Health is urging the public to ignore these calls. 

“We would never call you to ask for your Medicare details,” the Cuyahoga County Board of Health wrote on its Facebook page. “Also, if we did call you for any reason, our staff would give you a name and a callback number so that you could be sure the call was legitimate.”

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) describes spoofing as a caller that “deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. Scammers often use neighbor spoofing so it appears that an incoming call is coming from a local number, or spoof a number from a company or a government agency that you may already know and trust. If you answer, they use scam scripts to try to steal your money or valuable personal information, which can be used in fraudulent activity.”

The FCC has additional information on its website on how to prevent becoming victimized by spoofing scams.