The scams related to the Coronavirus are seemingly without end.  With so much concern about the Coronavirus, scammers are using that concern to lure people through text messages into going to either malware infected websites or websites that will appear to be those of official CDC or other health information websites where you will be prompted to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft. Similar scams will download malware on your phone if you merely click on the link believing you will be directed to a helpful website. Reproduced below is one of these text messages that appears to inform you that you have come into contact  with someone who is infected with the Coronavirus and then lures you into going to a website where you are led to believe you can find out more information about what to do.  The Kansas Attorney General has issued a warning about this scam.  https://www.ag.ks.gov/media-center/news-releases/2020/04/09/consumer-alert-beware-of-new-coronavirus-text-message-scam

TIPS

If you receive a text message such as this, you should ignore it.  Never click on a link or download an attachment from any email or text message unless you have absolutely confirmed that it is legitimate and unfortunately, there is no way for you to confirm if you get such an email or text message that it is legitimate.  Compounding the complexity of the problem is that you might expect that other states may follow the lead of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker who launched a program through a Massachusetts health care nonprofit Corporation Partners in Health, which is calling people by phone who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the Coronavirus to inform them of the necessity of getting tested.  However, these legitimate calls will not ask for personal information and neither text messages nor emails will be used to notify people of possible danger of infection.   If you receive a text message such as the one copied above and have any concerns that it might be legitimate, you should contact your state health department.  Here is a link with a list of each of the state health departments as compiled by the CDC.  https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/healthdirectories/healthdepartments.html

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and click on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”