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U.S. coronavirus fraud losses near $100 million as COVID scams double

05 August 2020 07:38 (UTC +04:00)

U.S. losses from coronavirus-related fraud and identity theft have reached nearly $100 million since the pandemic emerged in March, while complaints of COVID-19 scams have at least doubled in most states, a consumer protection group said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

A report from the group, based on government data, highlighted the vast scope of a fast-growing criminal cottage industry - from phony stimulus-check offers to shopping scams and fake cures - preying on Americans already distressed by the pandemic and its economic fallout.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the study found California, Florida, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania - the most populous of the 50 U.S. states - to be the five most targeted by coronavirus scams in the country.

Together they accounted for about a third of more than 150,000 instances of COVID-related fraud reported nationally by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from mid-March, when the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, through July, the report here showed.