‘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.
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.
Alibaba issued a statement about its cooperation with HSI, saying “We are proud to join forces with public and private sectors to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.” The company said it proactively policed its online marketplaces for illicit activity and “collaborated with the authorities to strengthen global supply-chain security and protect the American public”.
Proven treatments for Covid-19 have yet to be found, but that has not stopped online merchants trying to peddle false cures. The US Department of Justice said on March 22 that it had filed its first enforcement action for Covid-19 fraud against a website that claimed to offer World Health Organisation vaccine kits.
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In March, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned the public to look out for counterfeit treatments or equipment for the pneumonia-like illness, including sanitising products and personal protective equipment such as goggles, masks and full face shields.
The Federal Trade Commission and US Food and Drug Administration issued more than 70 warning letters in March and April to companies allegedly selling unapproved products that made “deceptive or scientifically unsupported claims about their ability to treat or cure coronavirus”, according to its website.
Dharmesh Mehta, an Amazon vice-president, said the company had stopped more than 6.5 million products making “inaccurate claims” and removed more than 1 million products for suspected price gouging, according to the HSI’s release.
The sale of fraudulent equipment has been a feature of the pandemic. In March, two people in the Chinese city of Shenyang were sent to prison for epidemic-related fraud, with one of them sentenced to 11½ years for falsely advertising masks on social media to scam 22 people out of a total of 571,400 yuan (US$80,500).
The European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol warned in March that there was no Covid-19 cure to be found online, urging consumers to rely only on official government sources, buy from licensed sellers, and use legitimate websites with safe payment options.
