The Will County Sheriff’s office has issued a warning surrounding ‘Contact Tracing’ scams associated with the ongoing battle against COVID-19.
Contact Tracing is the art of recalling steps taken prior to testing positive to COVID-19, including locations a person may have visited or people they have come in contact with. The process is designed to hault the transmission of infections diseases.
“When someone tests positive for coronavirus they become a “case.” Public health workers then reach out to the case, first to make sure they have what they need and that they are self-isolating, and then to figure out who they had contact with who also may be at risk of infection. The call from health officials should be brief and to the point. There should not be questions beyond what people you may have been in contact with or your general health and potential symptoms. Any invasive personal questions requesting unusually specific information (for example social security numbers or financial information) are not part of the contact tracing process.”
The Sheriff is reminding residents you will not be asked for sensitive information, including social security numbers, bank data or any other information deemed sensitive data.
“If you wish, you can always take the caller’s name and telephone number and call the Will County Health Department at 815-727-8481 or 815-740-4427 to verify the validity of the caller.” The Sheriff recommends.
As a reminder, Will County Health Department members are only doing contract tracing by phone. Anyone visiting your residents should be reported to the Police immediately if they claim to be doing Contact Tracing.
