Fighting COVID-19 related financial fraud

Whenever crises emerge, scams seem to follow, because while criminals can be strategic, they are also opportunistic. Since COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has caused a great deal of uncertainty and panic, fraudsters have found unique ways to target and victimize both businesses and their customers. And unlike many disasters of the past, the pandemic has localized a global concern, leading to a surge of frauds preying upon the desperate.

While this is just the latest battlefront in a long campaign against financial fraud, institutions can act. Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense.

Arm Yourself with Awareness

An effective strategy to combat financial fraud first requires familiarity with fraudsters’ tactics and detection. In many ways regarding Coronavirus-related financial fraud, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Cyber criminals’ approach to COVID-19 hysteria so far mirrors many of the scams financial institutions and their clients have dealt with for years, only tailor-made to the pandemic. Their strategies to take advantage of public anxiety include:

  • Selling fake products or treatments for COVID-19 that claim almost miraculous results, from testing kits and protective equipment to immunity pills and outright cures

 

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