‘Profiting from fear’: US authorities target Covid-19 criminals after flood of fake cures and PPE
- Internet scammers are exploiting anxiety, Homeland Security Investigations says
- More than 70 firms were warned by US authorities in March and April over ‘deceptive or scientifically unsupported’ products
The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has partnered with major health care and e-commerce companies to fight back against a deluge of fake goods being sold during the pandemic.
There has been a rise in opportunists seeking to “capitalise and profit from the fear and anxiety” surrounding the Covid-19 disease, increasing sales of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, and the illicit imports and sales of “products claiming to be treatment options”, a US government release said on Tuesday.
HSI’s National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Centre said it would seek to disrupt “Covid-19 criminal networks” by partnering with American pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Merck, health product manufacturer 3M, financial services company Citi and e-commerce companies Amazon and Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.
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Alysa Erichs, an acting director of HSI, said in a statement that scammers were “exploiting this time of anxiety and uncertainty to take advantage of consumers’ fears”.
“HSI has made it a top priority to investigate anyone attempting to use the Covid-19 pandemic to defraud other people,” she said.