Bogus doctor strikes, deceiving parents

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 06/21/2008 12:21 PM  |  City

Another fraud case involving a hospital and a bogus doctor was reported this week, prompting police to warn the public to beware of such scams.

E. Silaen received a phone call Tuesday afternoon from a man saying he was a doctor from Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM). He told Silaen her daughter was dying in the hospital and needed an operation. The man asked Silaen to transferred some money.

In a panic, Salien immediately asked her husband to transfer Rp 14.7 million (US$1,580) to a bank account, as requested by the man.

She followed the order as he said her daughter, Sri Boena Brahmana, had been in a serious accident and needed surgery to implant a heart pacemaker.

It turned out her daughter was alive and well, and the man who made the phone call was not a doctor.

"Our doctors never called the patient's family to ask for money," RSCM spokesman Nata Sudrajat Amban said Thursday.

He suggested anyone who received such a call contact the hospital for verification.

"If a victim of an accident has a family member to contact, we may call him or her to give information, but not to ask for money," he said.

He said RSCM received many reports of similar fraud cases in the first six months of last year.

"I used to get at least one fraud report every three days at that time. So we asked the media to warn the public," he said.

Since the extensive media coverage of the cases last year, he had not received reports on such cases until this week and was surprised to hear that such a crime had happened again.

In response, police urge people to be careful if they receive a call from someone asking for money, especially if they say a family member is dying at a hospital.

"I understand people panic when they hear their loved ones are dying in the hospital, but they have to be careful because it is probably a case of fraud," vice head of the criminal division at the city police Adj. Sr. Comr. Purwadi Arianto said.

He said the perpetrator might give the victims a fake local hospital number, which is actually the number of his or her accomplice.

He said the perpetrators were usually former inmates who had been jailed for committing the same crime.

Purwadi said in one case the perpetrator found someone's name card and called him, saying he was from a telecommunications operator. He asked him to switch off his mobile phone for several hours as the company was fixing some damage.

He said the criminal then phoned the man's wife and said her husband had been in an accident.

"The wife panicked and agreed to transfer money because she could not phone her husband," he said. (ind)

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