Scam
I received a call last week and assumed it was from part of the NHS: I assumed I had been referred by my consultant, whom I had told 5 days beforehand that I suffer from falls.
I realized shortly that it is a commercial company, but thought after hesitation that the service might nonetheless be wise, and so gave my bank details (which it will no doubt be able to sell on profitably).
After speaking with a more senior employee supposed to verify the details - who gave every appearance of being inebriated - I entertained serious doubts and asked where Protect Alert had got my detail from. He gave some BS explanation off the top of his head about ''another company working in the same area'', and when challenged, pleaded ignorance, but told me that he would phone the next day with the correct information. The next morning – before their booklet (amazingly: without the paperwork for the contract) had arrived in the post – I received a call from a different employee (no name given), who instantly answered my question about the source of the data (and so must have been primed), and who urged me to withdraw my application for the service. When asked the same question about the source of the data, he told me 1) that the information came from my GP, who has no access to my hospital records, again nonsense. When challenged, he gave me 2) the number of the NHS Lung Cancer Screening unit – who assured me that (obviously) they had no knowledge of my medical records. Again, nonsense.
Protect Alert phoned today (sober) and told me that my details had been arrived at through analysis of the 33 million adults in the UK who have not withheld their number. This belongs in the realm of sheer fantasy.
So I have been given 5 explanations, all BS, about the source of the data.
I have not agreed either verbally or in writing, to the contract. I told them that another on Trust Pilot had reported them a scam, and that I would be adding the same.
On the advice of my wife, a hospital doctor,
I am going to pursue the matter relentlessly with NHS England, as a matter of principle: at my advanced age, I have nothing to hide, but this won't be true of younger people. Whoever supplied the data is liable for prosecution for Breach of Data in their NHS contract. A prosecution will also be coming the way of Protect Alert, for buying confidential data.
Oh, and to cap it all - the email address given in their booklet is returned by Microsoft as invalid.
27. august 2025
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