Without fail, there are crooks trying to take advantage of disasters or fears. This time? Shysters trying to scam us as we cope with COVID-19. Among the scams Fox News has discovered:
- Cybercriminals are sending emails that appear to be from legitimate medical and or health organizations...click a link, and the damage is done. According to the Secret Service, “This leads to either unsuspecting victims opening the attachment causing malware to infect their system or prompting the victim to enter their email login credentials.”
- A number of unapproved and misbranded products claiming to treat or prevent COVID-19 infection are hitting the market. We’re talking teas, essential oils, and colloidal silver. And no, they don’t protect you
- The Secret Service is also warning of phishing emails where criminals appeal to your charitable nature to help the less fortunate being affected by this pandemic. Only give to charities that you know. If you have questions you can also use sites like Charity Navigator to check their validity and how effectively they use donations.
- But according to Gizmo these jerks are also cloning websites that are dedicated to tracking COVID-19 and planting malware into your electronics. A good way to check the safety of the sites you’re using to track the virus is to look for “ARCGIS” in the domain name. ARCGIS stands for Aeronautical Reconnaissance Coverage Geographic Information System. Here's the Johns Hopkins ARCGIS map covering COVID-19