DEA Warns Doctors About Extortion Scam
/By Pat Anson, PNN Editor
It’s no secret that doctors are under increased scrutiny from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement agencies for their opioid prescribing practices.
Last month a North Carolina physician was told to surrender his DEA license by investigators with the state medical board. “They called me on the phone and said they were coming by in two hours to get you to surrender your license,” Dr. Thomas Kline told PNN.
In southern California, a doctor who recently paid a $125,000 fine to settle allegations of illegal opioid prescribing says federal prosecutors threatened to ruin his practice and reputation if he didn’t pay up.
“They could care less if I was innocent or guilty. They wanted to see how much they could gouge out of me,” said Dr. Roger Kasendorf, an osteopathic physician in La Jolla. “It was extortion and there’s nothing I was able to do about it. It’s sad and pathetic.”
It didn’t take long for criminals to realize that other doctors could be vulnerable to extortion. And with no small amount of irony, the DEA’s San Diego Field Division recently issued an unusual alert warning doctors about scam telephone calls from con artists posing as DEA agents, who threaten physicians with arrest and prosecution for violations of federal drug laws.
“DEA continues to receive reports of calls threatening legal action if an exorbitant fine is not paid immediately over the phone. The callers identify themselves as DEA personnel and instruct their victims to pay the ‘fine’ via wire transfer to avoid arrest, prosecution and imprisonment,” the DEA alert warns.
The scam artists – who use fake names, DEA badge numbers or even the actual names of senior DEA officials – threaten to revoke DEA licenses if thousands of dollars are not paid by wire or in untraceable gift cards.
The threat is not an idle one, because doctors cannot prescribe opioid medication and other controlled substances without an active DEA license.
“DEA employees do not contact practitioners or members of the public by telephone to demand money or any other form of payment,” the DEA said. “Notification of a legitimate DEA investigation or legal action is made via official letter or in person.”
The alert urges anyone receiving a telephone call from a person claiming to be a DEA employee demanding money to report the threat using DEA’s online form or by calling 877-792-2873.
