COVID-19 Scams
The Town of Burrillville has recently seen an uptick in calls regarding fraudulent activity due to the Coronavirus. This is an updated list of fraudulent scams making their way across the country.
• Fraudulent charities- individuals are asked to donate to false charities set up to help people in need of COVID-19 help
• Fraudulent medical products. Companies offer false medicines or cures of the disease
• Fraudulent testing sites. Scammers charge $40 at imitation testing sites and even have factious doctors there to give false results.
• Fraudulent Medical supply companies selling N95 masks, ventilators, home test kits, etc…
• Offer free COVID-19 home tests. Caveat is someone has to give their personal information to get the kits and that information is used in other scams
• Calls from a fraudulent doctor. They learn you know someone who was hospitalized with COVID-19, then call you looking for payment for services for that person
• Financial Relief scams. Companies gather information to do a refinance or foreclosure relief
• Phishing emails that appear to be from the CDC or World Health Organization designed to attach malware to your computer to steal information
• Malware from an entity that appears to be from a legitimate business organization
• Call saying a relative is currently in the hospital and payment needs to be made to perform medical services
• Stimulus check scams. No one will ever be asked to provide personal information to receive their stimulus checks
• Tutoring scams. People are asked to pay for false tutoring services
• Work from home scams. Money is sent to you to purchase items and you are asked to send back the overage. This gets the scammer personal information
• Emails from factious hospitals or businesses notifying the individual that they came in contact with someone who tested positive and their personal information is requested
• Chinese police scams. Someone is contacted and to receive the package they are asked to make payment over the phone for the package.
Please be vigilant and protect your personal and sensitive information. Scammers are looking to take advantage of any type of situation they can benefit financially from.
Please be safe!