AMAC

While more and more Americans are getting laid off due to the coronavirus crisis, fraudsters are working overtime to con you out of your money and your identity, reports the Association of Mature Americans.

Recently Robert Charles, a spokesperson for AMAC, issued a warning for seniors to be on alert for cybercrooks. It’s a warning we should all heed and for which we should all be prepared, Rebecca Weber, the Association’s chief executive officer said.

“It’s bad enough that our lives have been upended as a result of the pandemic. Don’t let scammers use the disease as a way to rob you, access your credit cards and sell you snake oil,” Weber said.

Weber noted authorities have been sounding the alarm since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States. And, a report from the Federal Trade Commission shows a particularly worrying “surge” in the number of consumer fraud complaints with a disproportionate percentage of those complaints coming from individuals over 50 years of age.

“Isolation and uncertainty can trigger a need to ‘keep current’ about the deadly virus and your computer is the easiest way to get the news for which you are searching. But be aware that the bad guys are using the epidemic and computer technology to pick your pocket or worse, to steal your identity,” Weber said.

The FBI has issued a warning to take measures when going online “do your research before clicking on links purporting to provide information on the virus; donating to a charity online or through social media; contributing to a crowdfunding campaign; purchasing products online or giving up your personal information in order to supposedly receive money or other benefits.”

Weber pointed out, the bad guys are not just on the Internet.

Robocallers are having a field day as well during the crisis.

The Washington Post reported recently that “As the coronavirus pandemic exploded across the country, so did robocalls: American consumers were bombarded with more than 132 million automated calls a day in March according to YouMail, which offers an app that blocks unwanted telecom intrusions.”

Both the Internet fraudsters and the phone scammers are peddling everything from fake self-testing kits to phony medicines and hard to get medical products such as face masks.

It’s easy enough to deal with the robocallers; just hang up on them or block them from calling. Service providers can provide information on effective call blocking apps.

And then there are person-to-person pandemic scams; for example, door-to-door salesmen offering protective devices and access to testing or to exchange “contaminated” money for allegedly “clean” currency.

“These old school scammers can come up with seemingly ingenious methods of getting their victims to part with their money,” according to Weber.

Dealing with such physical threats is also easy; do not answer a knock at the door and if the hustler is persistent call the police.

The larger peril during these times is the possibility personal information may be compromised. Experts suggest reporting such incidents as soon as possible to the Federal Trade Commission, the police and the IRS as well as to banks and other financial institutions where a victim has accounts.

It’s also a good idea to do a thorough check of your credit reports. Look for new, unauthorized activity. Opening new accounts is also recommended as is signing up for credit monitoring and changing all Internet passwords, replacing them with new, stronger passwords.

It is also possible to freeze a credit report. Such actions will prevent hackers from opening fraudulent accounts using stolen personal identification information. A freeze can be lifted on a temporary or permanent basis.

Consumers can contact Equifax by calling 800-685-111 or email Equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services; Experian by calling 888-397-3742 or email Experian.com/help and Transunion by calling 888-909-8872 or email TransUnion.com/credit-help.