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Be wary of giving any personal details over the phone.
- Robocallers are using the coronavirus pandemic to scam Americans out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
- Scammers are also targeting the $1,200 stimulus checks that began hitting people's bank accounts this week.
- Data provided exclusively to Business Insider showed an eightfold increase in calls in March.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Scams seeking to capitalize on the coronavirus pandemic have exploded, and one company is warning it will only get worse.
Robocalls increased more than eightfold in the final weeks of March, as lawmakers approved the $2 trillion CARES act, which includes a $1,200 stimulus payment to Americans below a certain income threshold.
Hiya
From the week of March 16, when the coronavirus-related scams first began occurring, to the week of March 23, call volumes surged 844%, according to data tracked by Hiya, a company whose mobile apps help identify potentially fraudulent calls. The following week saw a continued increase of 73%. And as the payments begin to hit American's bank accounts, they're likely to continue."The recent COVID-19 epidemic has opened a prime opportunity for scammers to find new victims," Hiya said, noting that the most popular scams involve asking for someone's banking information, claiming it's needed for direct deposit of the stimulus check. Others, not unlike those that existed pre-coronavirus, include asking for social security numbers.
To avoid getting scammed, people should be reticent to give out personal details on the phone.
"Under no condition would anyone from the federal government call asking for bank account details, social security numbers, or other personal information," Hiya says. "There are no known cures or preventative treatments for COVID-19 at this time. Never give credit card or checking account information to anyone claiming to sell Coronavirus tests or remedies."
US officials warned that scammers could make off with more than $100 million by the time everything is said and done.
On April 12, the Federal Trade Commission said it had received 16,788 reports of robocall scams since the beginning of the year. Nearly half of those reports said they lost money, totaling $12.78 million.
"We will not tolerate businesses seeking to take advantage of consumers' concerns and fears regarding coronavirus disease, exigent circumstances, or financial distress," Joe Simons, chairman of the FTC, said in a press release at the end of March.
You can report a coronavirus-related scam to the agency here.
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