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2/25/20-An outbreak of opportunists

An outbreak of opportunists

2020|

As the Coronavirus (renamed COVID-19) continues to spread throughout China (and in other countries via isolated cases and clusters), people across each continent are prepping for the worst. Con artists are feeding off this fear in a variety of ways, from more traditional phishing email attempts, to the sale of (often never delivered) overpriced face masks, to the promotion of false “cures” ranging from herbal teas to kimchi to cow dung. (Yes, cow dung.) Sick scammers are also pretending to be government officials, such as those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and asking for Bitcoin “donations” to fight the virus, or sending emails promising updates on the “local” spread of COVID-19. The end goal of the emails? To get the recipient–who is, ironically, attempting to avoid catching a virus–to click on a link or attachment that downloads a computer virus and locks victims out of their machine unless they pay a ransom. Sometimes the downloaded malware runs covertly in the system, siphoning off the recipient’s banking info, passwords, etc. as they are entered. As GovTech points out, we can expect to see more of these successful scams because, “Unlike natural disasters which typically last for a few days or possibly a week as a global top story, the coronavirus facts are changing daily and new warnings and alerts can be expected for weeks, if not many months.” Yes, the prognosis is grim when it comes to widespread paranoia and poor choices, but we may pull through: Many with public platforms are already taking the meaningful action necessary to inoculate consumers. Zuck, for instance, is trying to defeat the disease of misinformation on Facebook and Instagram, including the particularly virulent claim that “drinking bleach” cures COVID-19. (Which is a stretch unless you consider death by bleach consumption a “cure.”)
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