Coronavirus Fraud Coordinator Named in Nebraska
Law enforcement officials are seeing a recent uptick in fraudulent schemes that prey upon people’s anxieties about the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Kelly of Nebraska announced Monday that he named Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Lynch to be the District of Nebraska’s coronavirus fraud coordinator, in accordance with a national director for such coordinators to be appointed to prosecute coronavirus-related crimes and conduct outreach.
“We will investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent any reported fraudulent activity related to COVID-19,” Kelly said. “We will not allow predators to cause further harm to our citizens.”
The fraud include businesses or individuals selling vaccines or cures to COVID-19, scammers seeking donations to illegitimate or non-existent charities and phishing emails from entities posing as the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The first federal enforcement action against a fraudulent company occurred Saturday. A wire fraud scheme under the name of “coronavirusmedicalkit.com” sold fake vaccine kits and claimed that they were distributed by the WHO. A temporary restraining order was filed, requiring that the website’s registrar immediately block public access to the site.
“We hope in the future that responsible web domain registrars will quickly and effectively shut down websites designed to facilitate these scams,” said U.S Attorney John Bash of Texas.
If you think that you may have encountered a fraudulent scheme related to COVID-19, officials urge you to report it by emailing the National Center for Disaster Fraud at disaster@leo.gov or by calling the center at 866-720-5721.
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