2022

"The nonstop scam economy is costing us more than just money"


The Washington Post interviewed Dr. Matthew Mimiaga about the mental health impact of telephone and online scams.

Pamela McCarroll doesn’t have the luxury of ignoring phone calls from unknown numbers.

The 30-year old is undergoing treatment for long-term colon cancer in Fairfax County, Va., and never knows whether it could be a doctor, a hospital with test results, or someone trying to schedule an appointment.

Unfortunately, that means she’s fielding up to 20 spam phone calls every day on her mobile phone, adding to her already sky-high levels of stress. Since her diagnosis in August 2019, the number of scam attempts has shot up while the topics have gotten strangely specific, including Medicare or senior benefits.

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Matthew Mimiaga
Matthew J. Mimiaga
Epidemiology
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Jian Li
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Liwei Chen

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Dr. Joseph Davey is an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 20 years' experience leading research on HIV/STI services for women and children.

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Niklas Krause
Environmental Health Sciences Epidemiology
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Catherine Carpenter
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Elizabeth Rose Mayeda
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Sung-Jae Lee
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Maral DerSarkissian
Epidemiology
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Susan Cochran
Susan Cochran
Epidemiology
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Alexandra Binder
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Jonathan Jacobs
Jonathan Jacobs
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Timothy Brewer
Epidemiology
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Mia Hashibe
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Naomi Greene
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Anne Coleman
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Julia Bailey
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Noel Weiss
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Brian Bradbury
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Tony Kuo
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Karin B. Michels
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Sander Greenland
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Jody Heymann
Epidemiology Health Policy and Management
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Pamina Gorbach
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Marissa J. Seamans
Marissa Seamans
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Roger Detels
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Julia Heck
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Zuo-Feng Zhang
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