192K Coronavirus Scams in One Week

Intrust’s cyber security consultant, Dave Hatter, told viewers on Fox 19 recently that coronavirus scams are growing exponentially.

According to Check Point, a cyber security software system, 192,000 scams have been reported in a one week stretch during this pandemic, Hatter said.

“I think it’s fairly mind-blowing because again, that number is just from Check Point. It doesn’t include research from people like McAfee or Semantech or other major players in this space… Microsoft or Google,”  he said.

Hatter says Check Point’s numbers could be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to scammers’ activity.

Coronavirus Scams Take Many Forms 

“These guys are coming from every angle, it’s text it’s email, it’s bogus social media postings, it’s socially engineered phone calls with spoofed caller ID,” Hatter said.

Hatter says, don’t click on a link or offer up information without doing some research to see if the source of the message is legitimate. Often, these scammers will use scare tactics to draw on a sense of urgency from the recipient.

“One of the nastier ones that we’ve seen recently said, ‘You have been exposed to someone who has coronavirus. Click this link to download a file, fill out this form and take it to a coronavirus testing center,'” Hatter said.

If you have questions about how scams might affect your company’s security, contact us. We’d be happy to help.