In addition to the contagion, Italians must also defend themselves against scams related to the coronavirus. Via e-mail or text message, at home or in the pharmacy, in recent weeks thousands of looters have invented ever more subtle scams to profit from the emergency, leveraging people's fear and vulnerability.
THE FAKE TAMPON AT HOME
As the articles recently published in many local newspapers reveal, reports of sms and WhatsApp messages arrive from different areas of the country warning that the 118 or the Civil Protection are carrying out a campaign of "home swabs" to test all the population and find out who has the coronavirus. Of course, these are attempted frauds. Some scammers have gone so far as to call their victims, posing as health workers and warning the unfortunate that someone would soon arrive at their home for the swab. Anyone who receives similar communications must call 112 to report the fact.
“PHISHING” BY E-MAIL
Another classic is "phishing", ie email fraud in which the fraudster tries to trick the recipients into revealing personal information, financial data or access codes. The State Police has issued a statement in which he speaks of “a computer fraud campaign through the forwarding of e-mails signed by a certain Dr. Penelope Marchetti, an alleged 'expert' of the World Health Organization in Italy. The fake e-mail messages, with professional and absolutely credible language, invite victims to open an infected attachment, containing alleged precautions to avoid infection with the coronavirus. The malware aims to steal our sensitive data”. Moral: you should always be wary of emails of this type, even if they seem credible, and absolutely avoid downloading attachments. Phishing attempts should be reported to the PS Online Commissioner.
MASKS AND DISINFECTANTS TO THE STARS
The Antitrust communicated to have asked various e-commerce platforms for explanations in relation to the sale of masks and hand sanitizing products. In fact, the Authority has received numerous reports from consumers and associations "who complained, on the one hand, of the presence of claims relating to the alleged efficacy of the aforementioned products in terms of protection and/or contrast against the Coronavirus and, on the other, the unjustified and substantial increase in the prices of the same products recorded in the last few days”. The companies involved will have to communicate within three days what measures they have taken to eliminate misleading slogans and unjustified price increases.
The Guardia di Finanza specifies that in recent weeks it has found on the market some masks offered for sale at over 5 thousand euros each.
