Fraud | Scam Alert

Licensed dental professionals in Nevada should be alert to scam calls, emails, text messages, and other communications from individuals pretending to represent the Board of Dental Examiners, a law enforcement agency, the DEA, the Department of Justice, or another government office.

These scammers may contact healthcare providers and falsely claim they are under investigation, then demand payment or personal information. These scammers may use spoofed phone numbers to mimic the Board's official telephone numbers and may already know details such as your name, address, license number, and NPI number to sound credible. 

Important Notice

If a complaint is actually filed against you, the first notice of it that you will receive from the Nevada State Board of Dental Examiners will be in writing (in the form of a letter attaching a Notice of Complaint) and mailed to you. But, if we have an incorrect mailing address for you, or we do not hear back from you within the alloted time noted on the Notice of Complaint, we would at that point seek to contact you at the phone number disclosed in your license application.  Therefore, it is possible for you to legitmately receive a call from the Board related to a disciplinary matter. 

However, if you receive a legitmate call from the Board, we will never indicate to you that your license has already been suspended or revoked, and we would never ask for immediate payment to reinstate you.  We are not a law enforcement body, thus we will also never tell you that you are under or subject to arrest or criminal conviction. Any legitmate contact from us would only be to apprise you of the existance of a complaint (for returned mail), to reiterate a request for patient records and a response to the written complaint (which we will not demand or require that you right away), or to answer your questions about the disciplinary process. 

If the caller threatens immediate or past civil, criminal, or administrative penalties, treat the call as suspicious.

How These Scams Usually Work

Scammers often rely on urgency, fear, and official-sounding language. They may:

• Claim your license is suspended, revoked, restricted, or under investigation

• Say you must act immediately to avoid arrest, discipline, or public action

• Demand immediate payment to “reinstate” your license or “resolve” an investigation

• Ask for banking information, Social Security numbers, date of birth, or other sensitive information

• Use caller ID spoofing so the call appears to come from a government agency or official number

• Follow up with fake emails, letters, or text messages that look official

Red Flags

Be cautious if the caller or sender:

• Pressures you to act immediately

• Demands payment by wire transfer, gift card, prepaid card, cryptocurrency, or other unusual method

• Tells you not to speak with anyone else or says the matter must remain secret

• Threatens arrest, criminal prosecution, license suspension, or emergency disciplinary action unless you pay

• Requests confidential or financial information over the phone

• Refuses to provide written notice through normal official channels

• Threatens your professional reputation by offering to keep any resolution confidential or not reportable to insurance or the National Practitioner's Databank.

What the Nevada Board Will Not Do

The Nevada State Board of Dental Examiners will not:

• Demand payment over the phone to resolve a complaint or investigation
• Direct you to a website to make immediate payment to avoid licensing or disciplinary consequences

• Require wire transfers or gift cards

• Instruct you to provide confidential personal or financial information during an unsolicited phone call

• Identify ourselves as a detective, investigator, judge, adjudicator, officer, auditor, or an employee of the FBI, CIA, LVMPD, County Sheriff, etc. No one at the Board office's has such job titles.  

What You Should Do If You Receive a Suspicious Call or Message

1. If you receive a suspicious phone call, ask for the caller's name and tell the caller you will call them back. Never call them back at a number they provide; instead, contact the number listed on the Board's website and ask for the "name" they provided. The Board will inform you of whether they legitimately contacted you or not. If the caller will not provide a name or will not allow for a call back, do not continue the conversation and hang up. 

2. Do not send money, provide credit card numbers, provide social security numbers, or send any funds via Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, or Western Union. Do not make any payment of any kind in response to threats or demands made by the caller. 

3. Do not share any personal or business information with the caller.  Note that we already have your business contact information, license number, etc., and thus have no need to ask you for it.  Do not provide your date of birth, social security number, banking or credit card information, login credentials to any account, or copies of any identification documents. The Board will not ask for your driver's license or passport as part of a disciplinary proceeding.  (Please note that personal identiying information and documentation may be required during the licensing process; if we call you from the Board offices identiying ourselves as the licensing team and you know you have indeed recently attempted to obtain or renew a license, please provide the required information and documention after you call us back and are satisfied that the caller is truly employed by the Board. 

4. Save the details. Write down or preserve the caller's phone number shown on caller ID, date and time of the call, name used by the caller, agency the caller claimed to represent, any callback number, email address, or payment instructions, and any voicemail, email, text message, or letter received.

5. Report the incident. 

Where to Officially Report for a Potential Investigation

If you receive a suspicious communication or believe you were targeted by a scam, consider reporting it to:

• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

• Local law enforcement

• Other appropriate state or federal consumer protection or communications agencies

Nevada Dental Community Fraud | Scam Tracker 

The Board's Fraud | Scam Contact Report Form is available to members of Nevada’s licensed dental community to report suspicious scam or fraud communications. This tracker is intended to help identify patterns, trends, and common tactics used by scammers targeting licensed dental professionals.

Please note that submitting information through this form is for informational and industry tracking purposes only. A report submitted through this form does not initiate a law enforcement investigation.

Why We Collect This Information

Reports submitted by licensees help the licensed dental community better understand:

• common scam language and threats

• spoofed phone numbers or email addresses

• types of payment demands, caller impersonation tactics, and which government agencies or Board representatives are being spoofed

• other recurring tactics used to target licensees

This information will be available to the licensed dental community and may also be useful in the future to assist law enforcement if individuals have been victims of fraud or scam communications.

Where to Submit a Dental Community Fraud | Scam Report Form and Observe Call Tracking

1. Complete the Fraud | Scam Contact Report Form

2. Review reported incidents by the dental community on the All Fraud | Contact Report.