Criminals are opportunists – they ascertain who is most desperate and vulnerable and where the greatest weaknesses exist and then exploit them.  Every February, one can expect to see articles warning about unscrupulous actors catfishing lonely-hearts or using one of the many dating apps to spread malware or ransomware. 

Consider the extraordinary display of fraud in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a time of great human vulnerability and institutional weakness; in fact, the criminal activity prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to establish the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF), when billions of dollars in federal disaster relief poured into the Gulf Coast region.  Since 2005, the NCDF has received more than 95,000 disaster fraud complaints 

On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the $2 trillion U.S. Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide economic relief to families and businesses in response to the COVID-19 crisis. 

Unfortunately, it is not a matter of if bad actors will exploit weakness and vulnerability during this crisis – but the scale of it.  

EXPECTED COVID-19 SCAMS

• Imposter Scams: fraudulently acting on behalf of an unwitting charity or government agency to solicit donations and/or obtain personal/private information.
• Product Scams: promoting products that make false health claims to prevent or cure COVID-19.
• Insider Trading: SEC and FinCEN are receiving reports regarding COVID-19 related to insider trading
• Phishing Scams: emails sent by a fraudster claiming to be a legitimate company that encourages the recipient to click a hyperlink which enables malware to be downloaded or PII to be collected
• Administrative fees. The check is a counterfeit check and the victim’s bank account is drained of money.