Guide for Recognizing COVID-19 Scams and Risks

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 10:13:04 -0400
covid19

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) posted a guide, on April 13, 2020, about online scams exploiting people’s concerns about the COVID-19. The guide is available at: https://www.cisecurity.org/newsletter

In brief, the guide gives some examples of commonly reported scams such as:

Fake tests and cures for you to buy,

Fake health organizations and websites that try to collect personal information about you and/or infect your computer, and

Fake charities requesting donations.

The guide also makes some suggestions. Briefly:

Don’t click on strange web links in expected or unusual messages.

Get your information from known, trusted sources, preferably ending in ‘.gov’. For example:

https://www.coronavirus.gov/

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html

https://www.ftc.gov/coronavirus

https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus-tax-relief-and-economic-impact-payments

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/protect-yourself-from-covid-19-scams-040620

https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus

Don’t give out personal information (including your SSN and bank information) over the phone or over email.

Verify a charity before donating anything to it. You can get more guidance about this at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0074-giving-charity (Federal Trade Commission or FTC)