Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Philadelphia-area health systems are warning residents to beware of an online phishing scam that mimics MyChart, the secure online patient portal used by most leading health systems. <\/p>\n
The scam involves emails and text messages that encourage people to claim a \u201cMyChart Medicare Kit\u201d by clicking on the embedded link to complete a survey. The resource kit is fictional, and clicking the malicious link could give hackers access to their MyChart portal, which stores identification information, including birth dates and addresses, and private health details, such as medications, medical conditions, and doctor conversations. <\/p>\n
Penn Medicine<\/a>, Jefferson Health<\/a>, Temple Health<\/a>, Main Line Health<\/a>, and Virtua are among the local systems that have posted warnings on their websites and sent notices to patients urging them to not to share passwords or other personal information through email links.<\/p>\n Attorney General David Sunday has also urged people to \u201cstay on the lookout<\/a> for this new scam tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n Phishing emails are becoming more sophisticated, as artificial intelligence does away with misspellings, grammatical errors, and graphics irregularities that were once telltale signs of a scam. <\/p>\n Phishing attacks have grown more than 40-fold since ChatGPT, an AI program that can draft emails and letters based on a prompt, was introduced in 2022, according to a 2026 trend report from HoxHunt<\/a>, a cybersecurity risk management and training company. <\/p>\n Scams that relate to people\u2019s healthcare or insurance <\/a>can be especially dangerous because of the type of information they may expose and because of the urgency people may feel to respond to the message, said Tom Gordon, chief information officer at Virtua Health.<\/p>\n \u201cThe leverage with healthcare is you\u2019re going to have a certain reaction,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cIt drives an emotion, it affects people\u2019s defenses. <\/p>\n Philadelphia hospitals take action<\/p>\n Philadelphia-area health systems work together to track scams and alert patients, said Lou Dignam, Virtua\u2019s vice president of cybersecurity. <\/p>\n Virtua is part of Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, known as Health-ISAC<\/a>, a nonprofit membership organization for hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and other health security professionals across the country to share real-time threats and best practices.<\/p>\n