Scam warning for overseas nurses

We want to alert our overseas nurses to the dangers posed by ruthless scammers, who may have them in their sights.

These fraudsters take advantage of the pre-registered nurses’ understandable uncertainty about whether they are from legitimate UK agencies. It is all too easy to fall for their lies and it happens to people every day and not just to those new to these shores.

Many of these confidence tricksters are from abroad, and they wait until you arrive in the UK, fully aware that your emotions are heightened, your mind is overcome with settling-in and preparing for your OSCE exam.

These scams are usually by text message or phone and they try to lure you into logging onto a site and parting with your personal details.

They may pretend to be from official bodies such as the Home Office, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), a bank, the Post Office, or even the police.

For example, the Post Office scam will send you a text message saying they have tried to deliver a parcel. They go on to say that payment is required for re-delivery. It is a very small and seemingly insignificant payment they require of £1.99 and people have been fooled into paying.

After one nurse fell victim to these heartless fraudsters, they attempted to buy multiple items online using her details. Luckily her bank has a strong anti-fraud system in place and intervened.

However, once she had fallen for this scam, she became the target of many more similar deceptions from other delivery companies and service providers.

Another nurse paid over £4,000 to someone claiming to be from the Home Office. They threatened her with arrest and deportation if she did not pay up immediately. This was all her savings, and her bank would not reimburse her. She was left feeling deeply upset, humiliated and ashamed.

Even one of My Nurses Life’s own trainers, who is an overseas nurse living here for 15 years, was a target of the same scam – but fortunately she immediately blocked the caller.

Remember that banks that you have registered with do not send text messages telling you that you have a new card, that you have not even ordered. They do not send you texts or emails to click a link – so if you get this type of message do not respond – delete and call your bank to confirm they did not send it.

Finally, be very careful who you communicate with online.

These fraudsters will pretend to be a nurse, or somebody involved in the UK care system.
They are trying to create a relationship with you to obtain personal information about yourself or your friends to tailor their next scam.

No reputable organisation will ask for a payment in the UK via a text message or email so regardless as to how authentic or how accurate they seem to be just assume IT IS A SCAM because it will be