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Kathy Albright answered her door in her Alcy Ball neighborhood in South Memphis and found herself on the other end of a proposition. 

The person who knocked on her door Friday, a white, middle-aged man dressed in hospital scrubs, told Albright that he was gathering DNA samples from anyone interested in participating in a clinical research study.

A quick swab of the inside of Albright’s mouth, the man said, could be used to test her for a preexisting cancer gene. 

“He asked me if I had ever lost a family member to cancer,” Albright told The Commercial Appeal, “And then he told me it would just take a quick swab to test me.”

“I said, ‘No, you’re not swabbing me. I don’t know anything about you,'” Albright said. The man left. 

Albright wasn’t alone as several Memphis residents took to social media to warn others about the mysterious DNA collection efforts occurring in South Memphis neighborhoods. The description of the exchange is similar to Medicare scams reported in neighboring states and across the U.S.

Sherrie Wade, who also lives in Alcy Ball, described a similar interaction when her 93-year-old father answered the door of their residence to find someone waiting with a DNA swab kit.

“They gave him a lot of gobbledygook, double-talk. I think they were expecting one thing when my father, who’s 93 years old, answered the door, but they got another,” Wade said.

Wade’s father wasn’t buying it, and refused a swab. 

A short while later, as Wade was leaving her house to run an errand, she saw the same man on her street corner, yelling into a cell phone. Another man holding official-looking materials was standing next to him. 

“He was screaming about, ‘This thing not being organized,'” recalled Wade. “That’s when I approached him and started asking questions.”

Wade said the man, dressed in all red garments that were similar to scrubs, was visibly nervous the more she questioned him.

“He took out some papers to show to me, and he flipped through them as fast as he could. When I asked how they choose their participants, he got really nervous,” Wade said.

Wade then informed the men that she was uncomfortable with them going door-to-door, and was going to notify police. 

“They disappeared quickly after that,” Wade said. 

Recently, the Federal Trade Commission issued a consumer warning advising against disclosing medical information to anyone promising DNA screening. 

Medicare, the trade commission said, does not give out DNA kits. The DNA testing kits, according to the trade commission, are simply a means of obtaining sensitive information like social security numbers or Medicare information.

Experts that are familiar with the scheme say that the scammers bill Medicare for the tests. The patients, who might never receive any results, typically pay nothing. But they risk compromising personal information and family medical history. And taxpayers foot the bill for tests that may be unnecessary or inappropriate. 

Safe to swab?: A genetic-testing scam is targeting seniors and ripping off Medicare

The Kentucky attorney general’s office confirmed that descriptions of the encounters — people who vaguely describe a clinical cancer study or offer free DNA screening for a mutated gene that could lead to cancer — sound similar to Medicare scams the office had previously warned Kentuckians about. 

Sometimes scammers approach people in person at their homes, and sometimes they call potential victims at home, offering to mail a kit containing materials for a DNA swab that can be mailed and returned, according to the Kentucky attorney general’s office.

The primary target of DNA-collection scams in other states has been seniors, according to the American Association of Retired Persons. 

An official from the Tennessee attorney general’s office has said that because the scam is aimed at Medicare, the issue is considered a federal matter. 

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