Good afternoon,

The Bloomington Environmental Health Division has received information from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) that the scammers are at it again. An operator called MDH to report that someone called saying they were from the health department and that his name was Mark. “Mark” informed the operator that someone would be coming there for an inspection next week, Monday, and gave her a code number and a phone number to call to confirm the appointment. The caller did not ask for a credit card number as some have in the past.

This appears to be a version of a scam that circulated several years ago, where the scammer is using the restaurant as a proxy to set up online accounts to commit fraud elsewhere. The following link is to an article not about Minnesota, but the same scam: Warning: Health Department Restaurant Inspection Scam

If someone calls you with this situation, please call the police. Our inspectors do switch areas every 3 years, so you should expect to see a new face on your inspections starting in January 2019. Bloomington City Inspectors will not give you a confirmation code for an inspection and most of our inspections are unannounced. We all have City IDs and business cards with us if you would like to verify who we are.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Environmental Health Division
City of Bloomington
952-563-8934
envhealth@BloomingtonMN.gov