Personal Voice and other Medication Adherence "Scams"

I subscribe to a number of Google Alerts regarding medication non/ adherence /compliance. For the most part they are pretty spot on regarding articles with my chosen keywords, new research, blog posts etc... At least once a day is a link to a faux blog that simply lists keywords with advertising and links to other spam sites.

Once such site came up today, but also revealed some useful information - ie. NCPIE is promoting October as Talk About Prescriptions Month (more on this in another post) but they have a broken link to the site.



The text isn't well written, but they do promote the importance of medication adherence and the role of the caregiver. It mentions a service called Personal Voice with a link to the website Family Focus Working Caregivers that has broken links and some healthcare information. Overall a horribly designed site, but offers the Personal Voice service which will call your loved ones for you in case you do not have the time to make sure they are taking their medications.



I called the number provided to get an information package. The voicemail thanked me for calling and asked me to dial the extension I wanted. I dialed "0" and got a voicemail that simply stated "Personal Voice". I did a Google Search for "Personal Voice Inc." and here is what I got:



At first I thought it was just a problem with them managing their online reputation - since the first four results are negative. I then read the posts and they all describe the service as a scam. They deduct money from one's checking account monthly, yet do not provide a service. They are tied to another company which is a debit-for-credit-card scam as well.

This just makes me mad. A company using medication non-adherence rates to scare caregivers into signing up for a service that is simply a scam to make money. Luckily they are now being investigated by the FBI. I have encountered a number of email phishing scams this year, and other online attempts to get information, but this is the first I have seen involving medication non-adherence.

Caregivers out there, be careful with the services you sign up for. Make sure they are legitimate and will provide a beneficial service for your loved ones. Check with the better business bureau and do a Google Search to check the company's reputation.

I have not included any links from this post on purpose.

Email Bank of America Scam

This has nothing to do with Medication Adherence or Healthcare, but an email scam I discovered and am passing along, which could directly relate to how you pay for healthcare.

I have never been one to put too much trust in online banking, although I do pay some bills online ( for 8 months) and check my balance every few days (for 3 years). I find it very annoying and helpful at the same time. Today I got the following email from customers_department-num-996dvy@bankofamerica.com:

"Dear Bank of America customer,

Security and confidentiality are at the heart of the Bank of America. Your details (and your money) is protected by a number of technologies, including Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption.
We would like to notify you that Bank of America carries out customer details confirmation procedure that is compulsory for all our customers. This procedure is attributed to a routine banking software update.

Please visit our Customer Verification Form using the link below and follow the instructions on the screen.

http://www9.bankofamerica.com/confirmdetails.jsp?site=25cydmOezksdDzrndydkcsdOkhb

Bank of America Customer Service"

Clicking on the link brought me to a very official looking B of A page that asked me to "Confirm your Bank of America credit/debit card details". It asked for my state, ATM or Credit Card Number, Exiration date, ATM or Credit Card PIN.

All very official looking as I stated (you can cut and paste if you want to check it out), except for the grammatical and spelling errors.

Interesting I thought. I do not have a personal B of A account, but we have a business account for BONDA Restaurant, which I co-own, and am a signatory but not the primary account holder. After looking at the page for 30 secs of so, I realized the email was send to an address I do not use for BONDA. Still strange, I thought, then I looked at the URL "www9.bankofamerica.com".

I can't remember the name of this type of URL, but I know it is some sort of scam.

The email has the B of A logo, and looks ligit. If I had a personal account, I might have have started to enter my info without really thinking, but most likely I would have taken a step back and asked why they would have wanted this information. I count myself somewhat savvy to the ways of scams, but I sometimes live in a bubble where I think I am immune to them.

Point being, this is a warning if anyone gets a similar email or would like to pass around the specifics to any B of A customers they know who might not have internet banking scams top of mind.

Thank you and beware!