Top Stories
Please send us press releases! The Fraud Report wants to keep everyone up to date on fraud issues. The media attention now is all about virus issues, so they may not report arrests or prosecutions. Send them along and we’ll include them here.
- Can take complaints in many languages
- 2019 received 40,432 complaints
- Losses of $151.3 million
- Top complaints about products sold online, goods paid for but never received goods
Coronavirus
- Italy gives contract for masks and protective gear to two men previously accused of fraud for not delivering goods
- UK warns scammers are sending emails asking for donations in bitcoin to National Health Service
- Reno, Nevada: Man arrested for stealing masks from veteran’s hospital
- Facebook sues cloaking software maker that lets those running virus scams evade the social media company’s filters
- BBC piece about online mask scams from Cameroon
- Chinese companies selling defective tests and protective equipment
- Georgia: man arrested for trying to sell Veterans’s Affairs hospitals $750 million worth of masks and other gear he did not have
- Malaysia reports several organizations lost money to undelivered face masks advertised on Facebook
- 291 cases of counterfeit masks seized at border to Kenya
- Europol busts elaborate scam selling nonexistent face masks to governments; €15 million involved; fake web sites; some money recovered, rest went to Nigeria / Irish radio on this case
- Fraudsupport.org has tips if videoconferences are hacked
- State governments and hospitals being scammed for counterfeit or nonexistent masks and protective equipment
- FTC reports on the virus scams it is seeing; good news is that robocalls are down
- London: Pharmacist arrested for false claims while selling “virus test kits”
Tip of the week: Counterfeit goods. With so many people shopping online right now there is an increasing danger of buying goods that are counterfeit, including of course things like masks and cleansers. Be extra careful with third party sellers on Amazon. Check out 1 star reviews, where people often report that goods are not what they claim to be. And call to get a full refund on your credit card if you’re ripped off. Here is the BBB study on counterfeits.