Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the RCMP are warning women in northern Alberta to be aware of misleading calls regarding breast exam results.
AHS has received reports of a man calling women claiming to be from a medical imaging facility. He relayed breast exam results and implied that a routine follow-up required an immediate breast self-exam while on the phone and also asked for personal information.
Calls of a similar nature were reported in the summer of 2017. AHS issued a PSA at that time and no further incidents were reported until Jan. 21, 2018.
Although AHS representatives may call to discuss mammography details, they will never ask a patient to conduct a breast self-exam over the phone.
If you receive a phone call of this nature, please hang up, note the time and any other call details and do the following:
- Immediately after you hang up with the caller, pick up the phone again, wait for the dial tone, then press “*” then “5” then “7”.
- Wait for a voice recording to tell you that the call has been traced then hang up. “*57” will create a trace of the previous call that the police or RCMP can access later.
- After completing the above *57 steps, hang up again, and immediately contact local police or RCMP on their non-emergency line. Be sure to inform them you dialed *57 after the call of concern.
If you are uncomfortable with calling police directly or are uncertain whether the call is legitimate, you can call AHS’ Screening Program Client Support Line at 1-866-727-3926.
