In times of crisis some people will still take the opportunity to try to con people which is the lowest of the low. We’re all desperately searching for information on the coronavirus and some of the information that we would normally question or filter out might slip through, as we're so uncertain about facts at the moment.
Current misinformation recently included a story that London was going into lockdown the next day and a member of the Royal family had died. Obviously neither of those was true, but in the current climate people believed it and spread the stories further by sharing them on social media, a quick check on BBC news would have proved them to be untrue. I’ve personally seen so called coronavirus health advice which is absolute nonsense spread on social media by people I previously believed to be very sensible.
We need to be extra careful and take stock of what we’re seeing, double check anything you read before reposting, if the media are not covering a story it’s likely to be nonsense. Let’s help stop the spread of rubbish.
Action Fraud have reported that since February almost a £1 million has been taken from unsuspecting people in 105 different covid-19 related scams.
Some of the current scams to be aware of
Scammers are going door to door claiming to be coronavirus testers from the NHS. The NHS and the police have said these people are scammers and there is no-one going door to door at the moment.
People are offering to collect food and medicine for people, of course there are wonderfully kind people doing this, but they are not taking bank card details and pin numbers. If someone asks for yours (particularly a stranger) do not give it to them. Also do not accept help from strangers going door to door, some people are using the opportunity to try to get access to people’s homes to commit theft (see point 11 below).
Covid 19 tax refund. An e-mail appearing to be from HM customs is being circulated and it’s another scam. As soon as you click on the link in it, it asks for your financial information (always a big red flag!!). Never give financial information via a link, always go through a search engine etc to ensure you are entering the legitimate website. HM government are not e-mailing people and asking for financial information.
Centre for disease control (CDC) e-mail (with a very convincing e-mail address) asks for donations to help develop a vaccine. They’re taking payment in bitcoin, which should also be a very big red flag. People are obviously currently desperate for a vaccine and think they’re helping but this is a total con.
Trading standards officers in Birmingham have seized bottles of hand sanitiser containing an ingredient banned for human use years ago which were on sale for £5 a bottle. They claimed to contain an ingredient called glutural, which was banned for human use by the EU in 2014. Some bottles had no labelling at all. Glutural can be used in cleaning products and has previously been used by the NHS to clean surgical tools and surfaces. Only purchase hand sanitiser from reputable sources.
Fake lockdown text. People are receiving a text appearing to be from GOV.UK saying they had been spotted going out and have to click on a link to pay a fine. People are paying the fine as there’s a threat of a bigger fine if they don’t. This is a scam, never click on a link in a text to pay anything.
Fake payment text. Again looks like it’s from GOV.UK saying that the UKGOV has issued a payment of 458GBP to all residents as part of its promise to battle COVID19. Most have the spelling mistake relieve instead of relief, spelling mistakes are always a good red flag. They are then asking for bank details.
Free school meals. The message asks for you to put your bank details in so that you can receive payment for free school meals.
E-mail saying it’s from the World Health Organization, if you click on it it’s appearing to be advice on the coronavirus and although it’s a fake website it’s a very good ‘mirror’ of the legitimate WHO website. It then asks for an e-mail address and a password and many people use the same password for many things so they will try it on other sites to access your details. Again if you want to go to the WHO website start from scratch and don’t click on links.
Landline calls. Recorded message from offcom saying because people are working from home your broadband needs to be slowed down and you need to be put through to the operator, so you press a button as instructed. Rather than being connected to an ‘operator’ you are then infact put through to a premium rate number. Total scam.
Scammers are going door to door saying they are from the Red Cross to test temperatures. Warn elderly or vulnerable friends/family/neighbours not to let anyone into their homes, there is currently no-one legitimately making door to door visits to test temperatures.
Bogus claims companies have reared their ugly heads again looking to cash in on people that have lost out on a holiday or event such as a wedding etc. They then say if you sign up to them and pay a fee they’ll help you recoup your loss, of course they won’t and you will have lost money.
Beware of fake good such as testing kits and sanitiser (see point 5 above) as trading standards have been seizing these. There are also fake masks about with fake BSI numbers on them to try and make them look authentic. Visit the BSI website where they will have a list of companies that have a BSI certificate for the products they are selling and check that what you are purchasing is legitimate.
Health scams
There has been a lot of misinformation circulating online about coronavirus cures etc, often allegedly from medical staff at hospitals or universities. Some include variants of the same ‘advice’ from ‘a doctor at St George’s Hospital’, ‘a doctor at Stanford’ and ‘a doctor treating COVID-19 patients in Japan’.
One of the most widely shared is health advice claiming to be from Stanford University. How can you tell if you’ve got the virus? Breath in, hold for ten seconds, if you can do that without coughing or pain apparently you don’t have the virus. They also say that drinking water helps kill the virus, you’re supposed to drink water every 15 minutes and that washes the virus into your stomach where the stomach acid kills the virus. All the information has been completely thrown out by the experts as having absolutely no medical evidence that any of this is true. Click here for further information.
For more fake medical advice you should definitely ignore click here:
Let’s stay safe everyone!!
Updated 3 April 2020
