The coronavirus outbreak has spawned a swarm of scam robocalls seeking to prey on peoples’ fears. Every day for the past week, fraudsters have placed one million or more suspected suspicious calls about the coronavirus to smartphones, according to YouMail, which offers an app that blocks unwanted telecom intrusions, the Washington Post reports. Robocalls have pitched fraudulent testing services, a dangerous sort of deception when patients are struggling to obtain diagnoses nationwide. One message began by asking if the person on the line is a diabetic using insulin. “We can qualify you to get a free diabetic monitor and a complimentary testing kit for coronavirus,” a female voice begins. There currently is no such take-home test. “That can actually kill somebody,” said Alex Quilici of YouMail. “This isn’t an annoyance. It’s become really dangerous.”
Similar coronavirus scams have targeted people by text message and on major social-media sites, pitching fake cures, fraudulent respiratory masks and a host of other suspicious products and claims, including a text erroneously saying President Donald Trump had ordered a national quarantine. Last month, smartphone owners received 4.8 million automated calls, according to YouMail, including legitimate reminders as well as fraudulent contacts, which make up nearly half of all robocalls the firm registered in February. In response, telecom companies have put in place technology that indicates on iPhones and Android devices when a call is likely real or spam, though not every carrier has adopted the system. One suspicious set of calls appeared to impersonate 3M, which makes masks that can help prevent the spread of coronavirus. A Los Angeles number has placed 20,000 calls pitching “coronavirus safety and medical equipment.”