COVID-19 scammers posing as health department employees

Scammers are spoofing phone numbers of Ionia County Health Department, the Michigan attorney general’s office announced. Callers are posing as employees to gain people’s personal and financial information, taking advantage of people’s fears of COVID-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus.

Callers can falsify information sent to a caller ID so it looks like it’s coming from a government agency or organization. As a result, there’s an increase in people calling the county health department with questions, which Attorney General Dana Nessel said slows their ability to respond to COVID-19.

Nessel announced a crackdown on robocalls in November 2019 to prevent scammers from targeting the elderly and preying on fear to get people’s financial and personal information.

In a one-on-one interview with the Advance this week, Nessel said there are some similarities with robocalls and COVID-19 scammers as they use “the flavor of the week” to trick people.

Read more: https://www.michiganadvance.com/blog/covid-19-scammers-posing-as-health-dept-employees/