Scams to watch for in a pandemic

Published in El Pais, 8 April 2020.

In times of crisis people become more vulnerable so it should be of no surprise that there will be people trying to take advantage of this unfortunate situation. Some do so more obviously such as people price gauging basic supplies, but others are being a little more subtle. Yesterday I got a text message from a scammer trying to do just that so I thought I would share different ways you can be scammed.

Phishing texts

This is where they send texts to unsuspecting victims alerting them that their account has been compromised or suspended due to the Coronavirus (bank, rewards Netflix, etc.). The text comes with a link which you click, and they ask you for a lot of personal information to fix this. It is all a lie and they will use that information to access your account and steal financial or personal information. All unsolicited texts should be ignored.

Fake Online listings

Now it seems impossible to buy your own medical supplies and even if you can they are often overpriced. So, finding masks and hand sanitizer for a reasonable price and quick shipping time might cause you to blindly click the purchase button without checking things like the seller rating. Using reliable sites like Amazon and eBay does not guarantee you to avoid such listings but at the very least you will be refunded should you fall victim to such a scam.

Price Gauging

As mentioned earlier this is the most obvious. Now with various goods becoming sparse vendors are raising their prices. Some increase is unavoidable as stores will have to adjust based on what they are paying suppliers, but some are reporting mark ups as high as 700%. If you experience this, you should report it to local authorities as governments are starting to pass laws which forbid such a practice.

These are all difficult times. Now more than ever do we need to remain calm and let cooler heads prevail. Do not believe everything you are told and when something does not seem right, it probably is not. Soon this will be over but for now take care.