Guide for Recognizing COVID-19 Scams and Risks
The Center for Internet Security (CIS) posted a guide, on April 13, 2020, about online scams exploiting people’s concerns about the COVID-19. The guide is available at: https://www.cisecurity.org/newsletter
In brief, the guide gives some examples of commonly reported scams such as:
- Fake tests and cures for you to buy,
- Fake health organizations and websites that try to collect personal information about you and/or infect your computer, and
- Fake charities requesting donations.
The guide also makes some suggestions. Briefly:
- Don’t click on strange web links in expected or unusual messages.
- Get your information from known, trusted sources, preferably ending in ‘.gov’. For example:
- https://www.coronavirus.gov/
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
- https://www.ftc.gov/coronavirus
- https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus-tax-relief-and-economic-impact-payments
- https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/protect-yourself-from-covid-19-scams-040620
- https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus
- Don’t give out personal information (including your SSN and bank information) over the phone or over email.
- Verify a charity before donating anything to it. You can get more guidance about this at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0074-giving-charity (Federal Trade Commission or FTC)
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Posted: April 21, 2020, 10:13 AM