South Dakota Issues Warning to Nurses About Licensing Scams

Scammers feign investigation and threaten to suspend or revoke nurses' licenses unless they pay up.

The South Dakota Department of Health (SD-DOH) and the South Dakota Board of Nursing (SD-BON) have issued the latest warning against ongoing scams across the country that target licensed nurses.

The scammers, via threatening telephone calls and/or email, tell potential victims that their license is or will be suspended or revoked pending an investigation into their activities, and that they must pay a set dollar amount, within a certain time frame, to have the action against them reversed.

The scammers use technology to disguise their email addresses or telephone numbers so their correspondence appears to come from an actual regulator. 

Don't believe it, South Dakota state officials say in their warning issued Wednesday.

"The Department of Health and Board of Nursing would like to remind all nurses in South Dakota that legitimate Department/Board business never asks for personal information nor requests payment in connection to any potential disciplinary action," the state's warning says. "No board of nursing operates this way, and all nurses have the right to due process. We will be forwarding all received complaints to the Attorney General’s office for review." 

In some cases, the scammer instructs victims to wire or e-transfer money to accounts or recipients located outside the country—another red flag for all potential victims.

South Dakota nurses who have questions regarding their license status should call the Board of Nursing at 605-362-2760. However, because scammers can spoof caller ID, if a nurse receives a suspicious-sounding call from this number, they should hang up and call the number back.

"It's despicable that there are those out there targeting our frontline medical heroes in the midst of a pandemic," says Kim Malsam-Rysdon, South Dakota's secretary of health.

It’s not clear how many of South Dakota’s roughly 25,000 licensed nurses may have been targeted or contacted by the scammers. However, they're not the only nurses being targeted; other states, such as North Carolina and Texas, have issued similar warnings to their nurses.

South Dakota nurses who have been contacted or fallen victim to this scam should contact the state Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Protection at 800-300-1986 or fill out a complaint form. 

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) also warns against scams and urges nurses who have been targeted to confirm their license status for free at Nursys or contact their board of nursing.