New fraud targets doctors, nurses and other medical professionals

CHICAGO (CBS) – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a new warning about people impersonating sheriff's deputies. The scammers are specifically targeting people who work in the healthcare field. The fraudsters are threatening doctors, nurses and others in Cuyahoga County, Ohio with arrest if they don't pay a fine with gift cards.

Nationally, more than a million people have fallen victim to that and a variety of other scams through the end of June this year. Consumers lost more than $4 million. That's according to data from the Fraud Sentinel Network.

Recently, the FTC announced it got back $9 million for people defrauded in a student debt relief scam.

The agency also filed a lawsuit and temporarily shut down a company offering riches for people who passively invest in its profitable online stores. By the time the company was shut down by court order, consumers had already invested and lost $22 million.

The Chicago and Northern Illinois BBB has issued several fraud alerts in 2023. Those include storm and other weather-related scams, entertainment event ticket sale scams, job opportunity scams and most recently, scams swirling around back-to-school shopping.

The CBS2 Investigators have reported on many con artists and fraudsters over the years including Candace Clark and Rick Dugo. Both were arrested and eventually convicted of fleecing people out of their hard earned money following our reporting

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