With the world in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, there are bad actors at work, eager to take advantage of the public’s fear and anxiety.
Certainly, there are those out to make a quick buck by selling hand sanitizer and similar products at outrageous prices. Phishing campaigns try to get people to click on fake links that will ask them to reveal sensitive information. And there are countless other examples of those seeking to exploit the situation. According to Forbes, Amazon said that by the end of February it had removed over 1 million products falsely claiming to treat the virus. Reuters reported that United Kingdom citizens lost a total of $1 million to scammers during the month of February alone.
Here in the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration report that they “have jointly issued warning letters to seven sellers of unapproved and misbranded products, claiming they can treat or prevent the coronavirus. The companies’ products include teas, essential oils and colloidal silver.” FTC Chairman Joe Simons said: “What we don’t need in this situation are companies preying on consumers by promoting products with fraudulent prevention and treatment claims. … We’re prepared to take enforcement actions against companies that continue to market this type of scam.”
Meanwhile, in China, ground zero for the novel coronavirus, authorities are using the cover of the pandemic to increase repression of opposition leaders. The Washington Post editorialized: “It may be that Beijing sees an opportunity to dispose of key opponents in Hong Kong while the country and the world are preoccupied with the epidemic.” The newspaper cited the arrests in early March of the founder of the pro-opposition newspaper Apple Daily and two well-known politicians; they were charged with participating in an unauthorized march over six months earlier. A hardline ally of President Xi Jinping was recently installed as head of the office overseeing Hong Kong, and the head of a Hong Kong publishing house that produced uncensored books about Chinese leaders was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The most recent news about bad actors came on March 16 from the European Union, where the European External Action Service released a document that says pro-Kremlin media outlets “have been prominent in spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, with the aim to aggravate the public health crisis in Western countries, specifically by undermining public trust in national health-care systems.” The fake news has appeared online in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French. According to this internal document of the EU, that aim is “in line with the Kremlin’s broader strategy of attempting to subvert European societies.” Reuters reported: “The EEAS report cited riots at the end of February in Ukraine, …as an example of the consequences of such disinformation. It said a fake letter purporting to be from the Ukrainian Health Ministry falsely stated there were five coronavirus cases in the country. Ukrainian authorities say the letter was created outside Ukraine.”
Cleary, in addition to hand washing, social distancing and heeding the advice of the Centers for Disease Control, all of us need to stay vigilant in order to stay safe.