Coro­n­avirus Scams: How to Avoid Them

As if you don’t have enough worry about right now, coro­n­avirus scams are pro­lif­er­at­ing as the pan­demic grows. Be alert to emails, phone calls, and text mes­sage that promise you coro­n­avirus or COVID-​19 help or infor­ma­tion. Here are a few known scams to watch out for:

Coro­n­avirus relief check scams. Now that the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has passed the $2 tril­lion coro­n­avirus stim­u­lus bill, every Amer­i­can who makes up to $75,000 per year can expect to receive a check for $1,200. You’ll get the check by direct deposit if you’ve already set it up with the IRS. Oth­er­wise, the check will arrive in the mail. You don’t have to “sign up” or fill out any­thing to get your check, so don’t fall for emails, calls, or texts ask­ing for your per­sonal infor­ma­tion.

CDC email scams. Scam­mers have cre­ated email cam­paigns that appear to be from the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC). These emails claim to have impor­tant infor­ma­tion about the virus, but that’s just a hook. Don’t click on any links in these emails; they may install mal­ware on your com­put­ers to steal infor­ma­tion from you. For the lat­est COVID-​19 infor­ma­tion from offi­cial gov­ern­ment sources, go directly to the web­sites of the  Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion or the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO).

Promises of coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions, treat­ments, or home test kits. Cur­rently, there are no proven treat­ments for COVID-​19. Nor are there approved vac­cines or home test kits. Ignore any offers to sell you such things.

More Infor­ma­tion

The list of coro­n­avirus scams is grow­ing every day. The Fed­eral Trade Com­mis­sion (FTC) has pub­lished an overview includ­ing a com­pre­hen­sive list of tips to help you stay alert to every­thing from fake news to phish­ing.