The changes wrought by health mandates and mitigation for COVID-19 have opened the door to scammers. A group commonly victimized by financial and computer scams, even in healthy times, is seniors. This week, the senior group AARP Alaska held a “Tele Town Hall” with health and fraud specialists to warn Alaskans about coronavirus scams.
Scammers are taking advantage of the uncertainty of these times. Seth Boffeli of AARP Fraud Watch says we have become easy targets.
“We’re at home, right by our phones and computers, and we are thirsty for information, so this is an opportunity that scammers take advantage of.”
Boffeli says with more Alaskans teleworking, there are more email scams that masquerade as important government updates like health mandates and closures.
“What we’re seeing aren’t necessarily new scams, but they’re using coronavirus, or the economic stimulus as part of their scare tactics.”
One of the recycled scams is telling victims they need to register or re-confirm information to continue getting social security, medical payments or prescription drugs.
“I think it’s important to remember that scammers follow the news, so two or three weeks ago, we started to see a lot of scams around test kits.
AARP recorded a robo-call using this tactic, and posted it on its fraud website:
“If you want to receive a free test kit delivered to your home, press 1…”
When you push 1, you will talk to a person who will try to get your personal information and tell you they need a credit card number to pay for shipping the test. But there are no test kits because the company is fake. AARP Alaska also has a Fraud Watch hotline posted on their website.
We are easy targets now for people promising remedies or services to make us safer.
“When scammers get us on the phone, or on email, their job is to unsettle us. Get us so worried about the threat or excited about the opportunity, that we stop using our normal, rational decision-making.”
“You know we’re all kind of in that place right now, because we’re all really worried. And so, a lot of the scammers’ job is already done.”
He says the basics of detecting a scam are the same now as before: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Be wary of anyone extolling you to act right away, even if it means you lose your chance at some deal. And never give out your social security, medical or bank information.
AARP's Fraud Watch Network hotline at 877-908-3360 for assistance. If you know you've been scammed in relation to the virus, please call the National Center for Disaster Fraud at 1-866-720-5721 or email the agency at disaster@leo.gov.