FBI warns against falling for scams
Criminals now preying on people’s fears during coronavirus outbreak Hayes Hickman
Don’t let your inbox fool you — there is no cure for the coronavirus. And there’s definitely not one you can purchase over the internet.
Nor does the U.S. government need your bank account number to send you an economic stimulus check.
The FBI is urging everyone to practice good “cyber hygiene” in response to a nationwide increase in common online scams that criminals are now retooling to play on people’s fears during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“These criminals will look for any opportunity to jump on something,” said Joe Carrico, special agent-incharge of the Fbi-knoxville field office.
“It could have been any type of tragedy. They’re trying to seize upon people’s fears.”
A rise in crimes such as domestic violence, drug use and particularly fraud are often seen during and in the aftermath of hurricanes, floods and similar disasters, said Kelly Frailing, an associate professor of criminology and justice at the Loyola University New Orleans.
And while the coronavirus does differ from other, traditional crises, “fraud is inevitable,” she told Knox News.
“Fraud of all kinds — unemployment, insurance, disaster/emergency benefits and public corruption,” Frailing said. “During emergency declarations, the usual safeguards for things like awarding contracts for service are lifted and we’ve seen time and again that money is fraudulently obtained by subcontractors and sub-subcontractors and sub sub subcontractors, sometimes with few to no helpful services provided . ... Lifting the safeguards makes sense for timeliness, but it also removes a guardianship mechanism.
“And that’s just one kind. Fraudulent unemployment claims and fraudulent emergency benefit claims are likely already happening or will start very soon and will far outlast the social distancing, by months, maybe years. Public corruption plays the long game, if you will, and we will see that for years and decades come.”
In a memorandum last week, U.S. Attorney William Barr directed all U.S. Attorneys’ offices to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of coronavirus-related fraud schemes.
Similarly, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office filed suit earlier this month against infamous televangelist Jim Bakker in an effort to stop him from selling a so-called treatment for COVID-19 on “The Jim Bakker Show,” based near Branson.
The FBI recommends the following tips to guard against criminal activity online:
Don’t open attachments or click on links within emails from senders you don’t recognize, as they may deliver malware designed to steal personal information from your computer.
Never provide your username, password, date of birth, Social Security number, financial data or other personal information in response to an email or robocall.
Always verify the legitimacy of websites by manually typing the web address into your browser.
And look for telltale signs of fraud such as misspellings and wrong domains within a link (for example, an address that should end in “.gov” but ends in “.com” instead.)
Anyone who believes they may be the victim of an internet scam or cyber crime is urged to report the suspicious activity to the FBI’S Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.org.
Suspected fraud schemes also can be reported by calling the National Center for Disaster Fraud hotline at 866-720-5721 or by email at disaster@leo.gov.
Email Hayes Hickman at hayes.hickman@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @Knsbreakingnews. If you enjoy Hayes’ coverage, support strong local journalism by subscribing for full access to all our content on every platform.