By Joshua Gerard Gargiul | Cronkite News
/Photo by Rusty Clark~100K Photos/Creative Commons
To get an idea of how fast scams are developing around the coronavirus, just ask Katie Conner, a spokesperson for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
“It seems like every day … a new scam pops up,” said Conner, who said the attorney general’s office has been closely monitoring consumer fraud claims. “And we are really trying to stay ahead and get these warnings out there.”
But Brnovich’s office and other consumer groups said the threat of COVID-19 and the national focus on it have combined with the speed and anonymity of the internet to spread scams that have left watchdogs across the country scrambling.
“We are updating our site about every 30 minutes, working to provide tips to consumers and information to consumers as frequently as possible,” said Diane Brown, executive director of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group.
Groups say the scams themselves are not new, coming in the form of phishing emails, investment scams and supposed miracle products. What’s different, they say, is the intense focus on COVID-19 and the “creative” use of the internet to spread messages, often false, about it.
