![]() Thomas Eagar, a patrol officer with the department and a fraud investigator with Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, told CNN he encountered the picture, which was taken in Texas, through the health department’s fraud investigation unit. This is an example of a scam text that should be ignored, law enforcement officials say. “Someone who came in contact with you tested positive or has shown symptoms for COVID-19 & recommends you self-isolate/get tested,” one text reported to the Kansas Attorney General’s office reads. One of the scams going around is a text message that tells the recipient that they’ve come into contact with someone who has tested positive or shown symptoms for Covid-19. Here are some common scams floating around and how to avoid them. Almost half of the complaints from consumers say they’ve lost money, at a midpoint of about $560 per reported scam. The FTC, the main national agency that tracks and responds to alleged consumer scams, has already collected more than 20,000 complaints from all 50 states related to coronavirus, according to data the agency released last week. And now that stimulus checks are in the mail, scammers are trying new tactics to get their hands on that money and people’s personal information. Other text message hoaxes may instruct people to stock up on supplies. ![]() Text messages and robocalls offering testing kits, bogus treatments or financial relief and claiming to be from government agencies have been reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other government agencies. Law enforcement facing onslaught of coronavirus scams that could last for years Tero Vesalainen/iStockphoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto The FTC has had nearly 8,000 fraud reports from consumers related to the virus over the past few weeks.
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