Criminals are taking advantage of the Coronavirus pandemic – spreading fear and misinformation, conning people into paying fines that are false, to buying protective equipment that doesn’t exist, donating to fake charities and so on.
These difficult days bring out the best in some people but also the worst in scumbags who just want to profit at other people’s expense.
These are the most common such scams.
Personal Protective Equipment
Almost every country is short of protective equipment – for their health services, social care works and others who encounter Coronavirus. So, the scammers offer such equipment. In most cases they don’t have any and you pay and receive nothing. In other cases, they have poor quality equipment but charge a very high price for it. Despite the desperate need, do not buy from unaccredited sources as you are likely to end up in a worse situation that when you started.
Fake Charities
There are lots of emails, text messages, phone calls and social media posts claiming to be from charities seeking to help research into a vaccine or to help those affected by Coronavirus or to buy protective equipment for health workers. Some real charities are taking these positive actions but almost all such unsolicited communications are from scammers. They keep your money and no-one else benefits.
Fake offers of Payments By Government
Most governments now have schemes in place to help business and citizens. Some scammers are targeting businesses – trying to get confidential information by claiming to be government bodies ready to make payments.
Fake Fines
Emails and texts mostly but also telephone calls telling people they have been fined and must pay up immediately. These are always fake – no government body demands immediate payment by Bitcoin, gift card etc. as the scammers do.
World Health Organisation (WHO)
WHO is a key organisation in the fight against Coronavirus and many scammers are pushing out fake information, fake vaccines, fake Coronavirus test kits etc. claiming to be from WHO.
These are all fake as WHO only works at government level.
If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.
