“Avoiding COVID-19 Scams”
BY
HAL BOOKBINDER
Originally published in the April 2020 issue of Venturing into our Past (JGSCV)
*Emails that appear to come from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) alerting you to “New confirmed cases in your City” and asking you to click on a link to see cases so that you can avoid exposure. You are then asked for personal information, or even asked to log in to what looks like your email page. Your information goes directly to cyber criminals.
* Emails that appear to be from the World Health Organization (WHO) which warn about the dangers of COVID-19 and ask that you click on a link to review the key steps you need to take to protect yourself. While you are reading the list of precautions, a virus designed to steal your personal information is being installed on your computer.
* Cybersecurity firm Check Point announced on March 5th that over 4,000 coronavirus-related domains, containing words like “corona” or “COVID”, have been registered since the beginning of 2020. Of those, 120 were considered malicious and another 200 were suspicious. Many will likely be used by scammers. Do not trust sites just because the name sounds legitimate.
* Televangelist Jim Bakker has been ordered by the New York Attorney General to stop advertising “Silver Solution” as a COVID-19 treatment. Shas, the Israeli ultra-religious party has been fined for giving out charms to protect from COVID-19. Undoubtedly, the Internet will be filled with “cures” and “preventions” that are worthless, and worse.
* Amazon said recently that it has barred the sale of over one million products that falsely claim to cure or provide protection against COVID-19. The company has also removed third-party merchants that had engaged in price gouging on items such as surgical masks. These sites may gauge, misuse your personal information and provide nothing of value for your money.
Be on your guard. Do not click on email links unless you are certain that the source is legitimate. If not certain, but believe the information may be of value, close the email and type the website, like http://www.cdc.gov/or http://www.who.int/. Do not click on the purported link in the email as it may be to a mock site that may look real while actually set up to scam you or to infect your computer.
Follow CDC guidelines (http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention-treatment.html) and do not let fear impact your practice of safe computing.
© 2015-2020 by JGSCV and by Hal Bookbinder, permission to copy granted with appropriate attribution.
You can reach Hal at hal.bookbinder@ucla.edu
