Scammers saw the opportunity and played their best by posing as big organizations or governments to convince people to give them their hard-earned money.
During the COVID-19 period the whole world was dependent on the internet, it indeed made it easy to survive the pandemic and carry on with the day-to-day work.”
The past couple of years were tough for everyone, the whole world was shut down due to the pandemic making a huge impact on people’s personal and financial life. But the scammers saw a big opportunity to steal money from people in the name of COVID-19. In the first five months of 2020, cryptocurrency thefts, hacks, and frauds bagged a total amount of $1.36 billion.
According to the Federal Trade Commission(FTC), they received more than 732,000 consumer reports related to COVID-19 scams since the start of the pandemic. 72.5 percent of them involved fraud or identity theft. These scams have cost consumers $778 million.
Nearly $1000 billion was stolen by scammers from COVID-19 relief programs designed to help individuals and businesses harmed by the pandemic.
Cyber-Forensics.Net, a cryptocurrency scam recovery service provider, notices; “During the COVID-19 period the whole world was dependent on the internet, it indeed made it easy to survive the pandemic and carry on with the day-to-day work. It also gave an opportunity to cyber criminals to reach out to people and steal money by manipulating them.”
What Are The Crypto-Related Covid-19 Scams?
◉ Payment for a non-existing product: In such scams, the scammer makes an individual pay for a product that does not exist. They are never delivered to the purchaser.
◉ Vaccination scams: The scammers pose as government or medical officials and contact people through phone calls, emails, or text messages. They ask to make a payment for the registration of the vaccine or provide personal information claiming it is required to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
◉ Phishing-Government impersonators: Scammers pretend to be government agencies and provide information on COVID-19 through text messages and emails phishing for an individual’s personal or financial information. These messages or emails contain links and attachments that lead the individual to the website controlled by the fraudster.
◉ Online shopping scams: Scammers have created fake online stores that claim to sell products that do not exist. They tend to sell COVID-19 vaccinations and other products that are necessary. But once an individual pays for the product they will not hear a word from the scammer and the product never reaches them.
◉ Pump-and-dump schemes: The scammers contact investors posing as big companies. They may say that they are developing a product or service that can be helpful to prevent or cure covid. This can be a part of a pump-and-dump scheme that can cause huge losses for investors.
How To Spot Covid-19 Scams?
The first thing an individual can do is check and research every single thing that they receive online. Never trust anyone met online and their offers no matter how good or legit they may sound. Some of the most important points are mentioned below to recognize a Covid-19 scam.
◉ Do not trust an online store if it looks suspicious.
◉ In someone is claiming to sell testing kits or vaccines to cure the virus it is fake.
◉ Scammers often pose as genuine organizations such as banks, big companies, or the government and ask for personal information or requests to make a payment.
◉ The scammers send covid-related phishing emails and try to trick people into opening them. This allows the scammer to access an individual’s personal information such as passwords and bank details.
◉ The scammers try to send investment and trading advice in an attempt to convince the reader to invest.
◉ The scammers lure the people by offering government benefits. They ask for their personal information.
How To Avoid Covid-19 Scams?
Timothy Benson, a chief analyst at Cyber-Forensics.Net, says, “Despite how helpful the internet has been for us during the pandemic, it has also opened a big gate for the scammers to execute their scams and make some free money. One should be careful about what they see online and think twice before clicking on something that looks suspicious.”
◉ Before someone plans to buy anything online they should take time and research. Go through the review section and see what others have to say about the product.
◉ Avoid opening links in random emails and text messages.
◉ Do not make quick decisions under anyone's pressure.
◉ Never provide personal/financial information, credit card number, or pay money online to an unknown person.
◉ An individual should get security software to protect their computer.
How To Report Crypto-related Covid-19 Scams?
If you have been scammed by a covid 19 scam, be sure to speak to your local authorities. You can also file a complaint with the FTC
They can even hire Cyber-Forensics.Net, bitcoin scam recovery in the UK, and a team of bitcoin scam recovery experts to help the victim to get their lost funds back. They have professionals that have gathered a lot of knowledge and experience over the years and know exactly how to hunt down the fraudster and bring justice to the victim.
About Cyber-Forensics.Net:
Cyber-Forensics.Net is committed to providing the most accurate tracing service for victims of online scams. Cyber-Forensics.Net empowers and simplifies the process of tracking down the cyber-criminals and assists in recovering the funds and creating an atmosphere for a negotiated settlement. For more information, please visit https://cyber-forensics.net/.