PITTSBURGH — A phone call offering free medical alert bracelets may be too good to be true.
Bill Trethewey received robo-calls from a caller claiming to be from a medical alert company 3-4 times a day for more than two months.
"Oh, it's awful", said the Mount Lebanon resident.
The phone recording said a relative had already paid for a medical alert system for him and his wife.
"It just identified as medialert. Yeah it sounded legitimate, but the first red flag was "gifted," said Trethewey.
The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about this scheme.
"They just need your personal information and usually credit card information," said BBB spokeswoman Caitlin Vancas, "they will sometimes say they are from medical alert, medialert … there's many different variations of the name."
Channel 11 News Reporter Gordon Loesch tried to call the number that had been phoning, Trethewey, a number listed on the Internet with hundreds of consumer complaints.
The Philadelphia number was disconnected.
"Well it's not actually just one company, and it may not even be a company per se," said Vancas.
The real Medic Alert Foundation is well aware of the scheme, noting that "…unscrupulous, and in some cases frankly criminal organizations, seek to take advantage of consumers in various ways by using our name and brand."
If you get one of these robocalls, the Better Business Bureau says you should not push any buttons, when prompted, even to decline services.
If you do, you're letting the robo-system know that it's a working number, and you're likely to get even more calls.
WPXI
