Covid 19 Online Scams and How To Spot Them
Phishing scams are very prevalent these days and I’ve been talking a lot about them. I recently talked about a pair Apple ID phishing scams I received in my email’s inbox which you can read about here. What made those emails very dangerous is that they came with attachments that the scammers wanted you to download.
The bad thing about downloading attachments from emails like that is they usually contain viruses or malware designed to either damage your computer or spy on your log in information from anything such as your bank, to PayPal, or even to Apple and then they can gain access to those things causing financial damage or worse.
Unfortunately, scammers are trying to use the pandemic to their advantage and have come up with a number of different covid or coronavirus scams to try to trick people into giving up their hard-earned money. What’s scary is that they are also using the first stimulus package to try to get that money away from people. Not to worry though, I’m going to go over some of the Covid 19 online scams that are making the rounds.
Scammers Trying to Take Advantage of Pandemic
As I mentioned above, scammers are trying to take advantage of the pandemic, by preying on people’s fears and conditions regarding the coronavirus. I think it’s incredibly sad that anyone wants to take advantage of people during this difficult time as people are dealing with deteriorating health issues to the virus as well as economic ones that could be because of either reduced hours or even layoffs because of the pandemic.
Scammers will do anything to try to get you to become a victim by either calling, texting, and sending emails. If you remember the stimulus package that was passed in the US back in the spring, a big chunk of Americans, at the minimum, received $1200. People ended up getting more depending on if they had a family and dependents.
There are scammers that are also trying to take advantage of the stimulus money that Americans have been getting as well. While a majority of US citizens have already received that stimulus money, some are still waiting and scammers are using their carefully created scams to try to get some or all of that money.
I’m going to be taking a closer look at some of those scams that are circulating out there so that you know what to look for and protect yourself from becoming a victim. You can also share this with as many people as you can so that they don’t become victims as well.
Covid-19 Vaccination
While there are real Covid-19 vaccinations being developed, they are not ready to be distributed quite yet. They are in the trial phase right now in order to make sure that they are safe for people to take. I do know that the CDC in the US has recommended states to be ready for vaccine distribution come November.
Sadly, a lot of scammers out there are saying that a vaccine is out and ready for use, you just have to pay a large sum of money in order to get that vaccine. The thing is though, it’s not a true vaccine and will NOT protect you from the coronavirus.
According to this article back in June, residents from Washington state were taken advantage of by an individual and a firm he either owns or works for. They said that they had a vaccine that was out and ready for people to take and it would only cost you around $400. After many complaints about the in-effectiveness of the supposed vaccine as well as the steep cost of it, the individual and company were sued by the Attorney General of Washington state. They were ordered to shut down and those who paid for that (fake) vaccine had to be refunded.
So now you know that if anyone contacts you saying that they have a Covid-19 vaccine or anti-bodies that you can take for it and costs you money, stay as far away from it as possible as it is a scam. Let’s take a closer look at some other covid related scams making the rounds.
Saliva from those who had Covid-19
As crazy as this sounds, there are places online that claim that saliva and even blood from those who survived Covid are for sale and will protect your body against the coronavirus. Do not fall for this at all as this not true in any way, shape, or form and you will either never see any of it if you paid for it, and let’s say you do receive that, there’s a good chance that the blood could be infected with other things such as HIV.
You will generally see these things for sale if you are searching through the Dark Web, but honestly, you should never search the Dark Web for anything as they are a breeding ground for scams, hackers, and more. A lot of times people are searching through the Dark Web for bad purposes such as looking for hackers to hack someone to possibly try to steal information from them or hold their valuable files on a computer hostage until they pay up.
So if you somehow come across an email claiming that they can sell you blood and saliva from someone who has had Covid-19, delete that email immediately as it is definitely a scam. It’ll end up costing you money and if you were to receive anything, it could actually make you sick or worse.
Free Home Delivery of a Covid-19 Vaccine
There’s an email I came across that said free home delivery service of the Corona Vaccine. The thing is, like I mentioned earlier, there is currently no vaccine for distribution and if someone is claiming that they can deliver it free to your house, it more than likely isn’t free and they are trying to get money from you.
Now I’m not going to say the email I received is a complete hoax because I did click the link inside of the email just to see where it would take me and it actually took me to an article that said that a specific Dr’s lab would begin home delivery service of the vaccine when it becomes available. The thing is though, this is specific to India. Now I don’t know about the specifics of things and a vaccine for that country, but you should always have a level of caution when seeing things such as this.
I have done some research and there are scammers trying to say there are similar things in other places around the world, but again, they are trying to get money out of you and so if it does say something is free it usually means that it isn’t and will end up costing you.
Always Be Alert
With so many things going on in our world today, it can definitely be hard to discern what is truthful and or helpful and what is not. We certainly want to do as much as we can to keep from catching this very contagious virus and scammers know this and so they trying to use that to their advantage.
If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. There are many helpful sites out there if you’re unsure whether something is legitimate or not. You can always check out sites such as the FTC website which has loads of information about how to best avoid coronavirus scams.
The FTC usually is up to date with the latest Covid scams that are circulating around the internet so you’ll always want to check back for any new information that may be available. They also have some great information about the stimulus checks and how scammers are trying as hard as possible to get a lot of that money. That’s definitely something you’ll want to pay attention to because there could be another round of stimulus checks coming out soon.
Now that you know about some of the Covid-19 online scams that are circulating around out there, you can definitely avoid them or delete them if you get phishing emails. Have you fallen victim to a Covid-19 scam or know anyone who has? Maybe you know someone who lost a lot of that stimulus money because of one of these scams. Feel free to post your comments below.