Authorities Warn Citizens of Scams Related to COVID-19

Paula Liu
By Paula Liu
April 17, 2020US News
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Authorities Warn Citizens of Scams Related to COVID-19
A woman uses a laptop in Abidjan on April 3, 2019. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images)

Authorities are warning citizens of scammers targeting people’s fears amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued warnings stating that it had received various reports of scams—either through hoax text messages or robocalls—which presented consumers with so-called free home testing kits, bogus cures, and fraudulent health insurance, preying on people’s virus-related fears.

“A text message scam may falsely advertise a cure or an offer to be tested for coronavirus,” the FCC stated, advising people not to click on any links attached to the messages.

The Thomaston Police Department in Georgia shared a text from a scammer in a Facebook post. “Someone who came in contact with you tested positive or has shown symptoms for COVID-19 & recommends you self-isolate/get tested,” the text message read, providing a link at the bottom of the text. The department said texts like these aren’t from official agencies and people should not click on them.

“The virus is not the only invisible enemy. Be vigilant against all threats,” the police department wrote.

Italy
A woman wears a mask as she checks her smartphone in Milan, Italy, on Jan. 30, 2020. (Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)

The FCC also stated that these text message scammers may pretend to be government agencies, or even neighbors—all of which are fake.

The agency said it recently learned of a fraudulent organization called the “FCC Financial Care Center,” which had been offering $300,000 as COVID-19 relief. The FCC warned that such a program does not exist and that this was a likely attempt to get people to provide their bank or personal information—also called “phishing.”

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) also warned of these scams, saying that since many people are working from home, scammers are becoming more advanced and are impersonating official personnel from trustworthy organizations.

The BBB also warned of a “text message scam impersonating the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services informs recipients that they must take a ‘mandatory online COVID-19 test’ using the included link.” These tests do not exist, the agency said, and if people open the links, they may get malware installed on their electronic devices.

The BBB provided a list of the six top COVID-19 related scams, as well as tips on how to identify what they are so that people can avoid them. The agency said that during the pandemic, scammers will use various methods to extract information, so everyone should be especially alert.

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