Crises provide fertile grounds for scam artists to defraud the public. The coronavirus serves as an ideal opportunity for con artists to flourish. Law enforcement sources are reporting the existence of all manner of consume fraud schemes.
There are no such things as door to door coronavirus tests. Some confidence artists are moving through neighborhoods knocking on doors, advising that they have Center for Disease Control (CDC) or other government agency authorized portable tests to determine positivity for COVID 19. Beyond the fact that, as of the writing of this blog entry, the United States continues to suffer from a woeful inadequacy in test capacity, there are no authorized portable testing facilities. The technology to do such testing may not even exist.
Persons calling on the telephone or sending email blasts offering services to test for and/or remove coronavirus from private homes are perpetrating scams. These frauds are becoming increasingly common. Homeowners should follow CDC and government guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting areas that many people commonly touch and should practice “social distancing” as directed by medical authorities.
Finally, when searching online line for coronavirus information, persons should make certain that they are accessing legitimate and reputable websites. Fraudsters have designed some sites to resemble those of reputable agencies or medical facilities, but, in reality, these are fraudulent sites seeking to extract personal and identifying information from the researcher’s computer.
These are a few examples that persons should know. There are potentially as many others as there are creative con artists.