Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Sentara warns community of coronavirus in-home testing scam

(WYDaily file/Courtesy of Pixabay)
(WYDaily file/Courtesy of Pixabay)

Sentara Healthcare officials are warning the public to be wary of a scam that surfaced this weekend involving in-home testing for coronavirus.

A Virginia Beach resident notified Sentara of a scam involving a someone who claimed to represent Sentara and offered a home visit for coronavirus testing.

The scammer told the resident they may have been exposed to someone with coronavirus (COVID-19). The caller then asked to come to the resident’s home to conduct a test.

“To be clear, this caller has absolutely no association with Sentara,” officials said in a news release. “The resident was correctly suspicious, denied the request and contacted Sentara.”

Sentara said they have reported the matter to police.

“No one from Sentara will call and ask to come to your home to conduct a coronavirus test,” Sentara officials said. “If someone tries this tactic, deny the request and hang up. We are heartsick that in the midst of a national health crisis, scammers would use our name to prey on worried people.”

Here’s the website for Sentara’s COVID-19 testing.

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John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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