Coronavirus: with the pandemic, scams and scams flourish

Text by: Nicolas Bamba Follow

On the web, in hospitals, on the street, in shops ... The spread of Covid-19 is an opportunity for scammers to multiply their misdeeds.

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With the difficult period that the world is going through in the face of the pandemic of the new coronavirus baptized Covid-19, fears and scams are getting mixed up. The Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF) has noted this. " Since the appearance of the first cases of coronavirus, scams from malicious companies and individuals have multiplied, " she said in a statement on March 27, 2020.

Interpol is also vigilant in the face of criminal acts that still thrive on the web, but not only. Almost everywhere, the misdeeds have been happening for weeks.

Mask thefts explode

These are two of the most popular products at the moment: hydroalcoholic gel, and above all protective masks - particularly the famous FFP2 type masks which protect the wearer and those around him. France, like other countries, misses it for its nursing staff. Commodity is scarce and scammers are trying to profit from it.

Wednesday, March 25, a man was again indicted in Paris after the discovery of 23,060 masks in a van. The individual sold them illegally. This is not a first in the capital: fourteen similar investigations have been opened by the Paris prosecutor's office for offenses relating to the sale of protective masks or hydroalcoholic gel, products requisitioned by the government and made available to carers . The French authorities have also prohibited any speculation on these products.

The staff of the medical profession, they have taken the habit of removing their macaron from their windshields, to prevent malicious people from fracturing their vehicle, looking for equipment and in particular these famous masks.

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Sophisticated online scams

In mid-March, in the United States in Tennessee, two brothers had drawn the wrath of opinion and justice by seeking to resell the price of gold on the web for thousands of bottles of gel bought before the start of the epidemic across the Atlantic. Their activity was declared illegal and, in the face of outcry, they ended up selling their stock to associations.

The scams are sometimes well put together, as the company CERP Rouen has bitter experience. This wholesaler, who works for pharmacies, had ordered gels and masks for 6.6 million euros in early March from what had in fact turned out to be a ghost company. CERP Rouen deplored, in a press release, that " people without morality, in France or abroad, do not hesitate to take advantage of the health emergency ". A sad habit on the web, notes the platform against cyberbullying Pharos , which warned in mid-March that this phenomenon would " go on growing ".

More vulnerable older adults

To the thefts of masks and gels in hospitals was added another unpublished larceny which scandalized the staff of the private Paul-Egine hospital, in Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne). Two men working in the establishment were arrested Thursday, March 26. One of them, a biomedical engineer, had three portable artificial respirators in his locker. On the web, he offered one for sale for 450 euros. A robbery and an attempted sale which are all the more striking as this equipment could run out and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe warned that the next two weeks would be " difficult, even more than the fortnight that has just passed r ".

Questioned by France 2 , Artus de Saint-Pern, director general of the Paul-Egine hospital, said he was " stunned that an employee could sell such important equipment, absolutely essential for the survival of patients ". On social networks, the police are calling for the greatest vigilance: false kitty, telephone canvassing for a false disinfection service for premises, paid travel certificates, false police claiming exorbitant amounts of cash during "checks" in the street, false nurses knocking on doors ... The reported harms are numerous, and the elderly are particularly targeted by scammers.

(with AFP)

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