Fake Advertisements and CDC References

The Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA) has issued a report on the presence of advertisements for medical supplies, including a vaccine for Covid-19 (as of 4/7/2020 there is no such vaccine).   These advertisements frequently appear on YouTube and try to add authenticity to their design by including a link to the website of the Center for Disease Control (CDC).   Advertising a non-existent product is a pretty clear tip-off that something is wrong, but some vendors may offer things that actually exist, such as surgical masks.  It is also important to note that even if a vendor offers a real product on their website, it doesn’t mean they have any in stock to ship to you.  

After contacting some of the vendors,  the DCA noted other peculiarities.  One vendor, for instance, refused payment by credit cards but offered to accept other payment methods such as PayPal, gift cards, and BitCoin.  Generally, purchasing with credit cards is safer than using many other payment methods.  Most credit cards provide purchase protection against many forms of fraud and allow you to dispute charges when you don't receive an item or the wrong amount is charged.  

The CDC link under the videos was valid and took the viewer to the latest information from the CDC.  The concern is that people may take this link as some sort of certification by the CDC.  Please note that anyone can insert a link to anything on their website, and the presence of a link on a a web page does not indicate a relationship, certification, or endorsement.  Links to trusted institutions are useless for authentication.

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