Coronavirus fears bring rise in fraud schemes, FBI warns

Law enforcement officials are reporting a rise in fraud schemes as scammers work to take advantage of the  coronavirus pandemic.

With residents bombarded by health information, seeing a slew of charity requests and likely soon expecting funds from a federal stimulus package, FBI officials say thieves are attempting to leverage the pandemic to steal their victims’ money, personal information or both.

Mike Herrington, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said the most important thing people should remember is to use their common sense, to “stop, take a deep breath and think about it before you react” to a request for money or information and to remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

“People want information, they want to know how to help out and they want to protect themselves and the people they care about,” Herrington said. “Those are the kind of things the scammers will take advantage of, and they are going to try to provoke those emotional reactions.”

Authorities are cautioning people to specifically be on the lookout for fake emails from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other health organizations, phishing emails seeking personal information in order to receive economic stimulus checks from the government and claims of counterfeit treatments or equipment.

People should not open attachments or click links within emails from senders they don’t recognize, should avoid providing username, passwords or personal information – such as social security numbers financial data or birth dates – and should verify the web address of legitimate websites and check for misspellings within emails.

The scammers are a mix of people seeing an “opportunity to make a quick buck” and more professional organized crime organizations, with many of the perpetrators likely operating from overseas, Herrington said.

To go after the scammers, a variety of federal and local law enforcement agencies will work closely, Herrington said, sharing information between them.

Authorities are asking people to report suspicious activity related to potential scams and other cyber crime to contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint center at www.ic3.gov. Even those who didn’t lose money should reach out if they believe they were targeted, officials said.

“Every complaint is a piece of the puzzle, and the more pieces we get the clearer the picture becomes,” Herrington said.