California's health department says scammers are posing as its staff and claiming a prescription was filled in your name, to get your personal and financial details.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is warning that scammers are calling people while pretending to be department employees. The callers say a prescription was filled in your name and push you to "clear your record." The state says it has received multiple reports, and similar scams are showing up across the country.
The caller claims you need to verify personal information right away. They may mention real CDPH names, badge numbers or phone lines to sound official. They also spoof CDPH phone numbers, which means the number on your screen can look genuine when it is not.
Some scammers go further. They transfer the victim to a video call with someone in a fake police uniform, sitting in what the department calls a fabricated recording room. The goal is to make the situation feel like a real legal matter.
The callers lean on pressure. They threaten legal consequences or canceled prescriptions. Some tell people to meet at a Sacramento address. In some cases, the behavior escalates into repeated calls or threatening text messages.
If no one has contacted you, there is nothing to fix. CDPH does call people for real public health reasons, such as disease investigations and contact tracing. But the department says those calls never involve Social Security numbers, credit card information, payment or data unrelated to health. Dr. Erica Pan, the CDPH director, said staff would never ask for personal financial information of any kind over the phone.
The alert box above lists the steps. The short version: end the call, share nothing, and report it to CDPH. The department urges the public to report scam calls.
The department did not say how many people have been targeted, whether anyone lost money, or who is behind the calls. It also did not say how scammers learned the names, badge numbers and phone lines they use. Because the callers rely on urgency, a pause is your best defense. A real agency will not mind if you hang up and check.
A caller who says a prescription was filled in your name and demands answers fast is a scam, so hang up and report it.
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