Don’t be scammed
There are, sadly, people willing to profit off any kind of misfortune.
Even a global pandemic.
Early last year, as COVID-19 chewed up the Canadian economy and laid off huge numbers of workers, the Canadian government moved swiftly to get Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) money into the hands of those who needed it. The general idea? Get the money out quickly and easily, because Canadians need it right away.
But it took no time at all for fraudsters to come up with scores of ways to try and fool people and steal some or all of their CERB benefits.
And it’s not just CERB.
Right now, a federal government information page on COVID-19 scams lists almost 40 different scams that have been reported to federal agencies.
Here’s a sampling of some of the scams on the federal government’s list: people contacting you posing as the representatives of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization “offering fake lists for sale of COVID-19 infected people in your neighbourhood.”
Emails containing links or content related to COVID-19 vaccines that freeze your computer when you click on them, followed by a demand for payment to unfreeze your equipment.
Phone calls “from someone claiming to work for a pharmaceutical company and offering a ‘six shot vaccine system’ which you receive by mail after paying large sums of money.”
There are fake COVID-19 notification apps — bogus calls from pretend public health officials claiming you’ve tested positive for COVID-19 and asking for health card and credit card numbers. Faked calls claiming to be from charities, offering “free” medical products in exchange for a donation.
In some areas, there are even door-to-door salespeople offering a “COVID-19 disinfection cleaning” of your home.
The list is long, and the imagination and ingenuity used to trick people is both impressive and downright depressing. There are fake loan programs, fake stock opportunities in companies “with miraculous discoveries” about to produce massive financial gains, even expensive fake air filters that supposedly trap and neutralize the virus.
Probably the most heinous? Those offering access to bogus COVID-19 vaccinations for a fee, and those offering to provide travellers with faked test results claiming to prove that the travellers don’t have the virus.
Why are they among the worst?
Because they not only rip people off, but because they could have a role in spreading the virus even further. Perhaps, after you receive your fraudulent “home vaccination kit” (no such thing exists), you think you and those around you are somehow protected, and lower your guard. Perhaps, with your phony negative test, you bring a virus home with you with a planeload of other passengers.
It’s sad but true: there’s a sucker born every minute.
It’s pretty clear there’s a fraudster born every minute, too.
Contact us Email: letters@theguardian.pe.ca Website: www.theguardian.pe.ca Post: The Guardian,
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