While the Coronavirus pandemic finally appears to be lessening, it still poses a significant health risk.  Much of the credit for the reduction of the pandemic is due to the increasing number of people who are getting vaccinated with vaccines created by companies such as Phizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.  However, despite the safety, effectiveness and availability of these vaccines there is a significant number of people who are adverse to taking the vaccines even though these people are concerned about the Coronavirus.  Scammers are now targeting these people through text messages, emails and social media selling pills that they misrepresent as being able to prevent infection by the Coronavirus.  None of these pills are effective and some may even be harmful to your health.  The World Health Organization has stated that there are ” no known effective therapeutics” available to prevent or treat the coronavirus other than the conventional vaccines.  However, scammers take advantage of the fact that the major pharmaceutical companies are indeed working on a Coronavirus pill although they are far from achieving that goal at this point in time.

According to FTC Chairman Joe Simons, “There is a high level of anxiety over the potential spread of coronavirus.  What we don’t need in this situation are companies preying on consumers by promoting products with fraudulent prevention and treatment claims..”

TIPS

As for healthcare products in general, you should be skeptical about companies that promise miraculous cures to illnesses and medical conditions.  The world is full of snake oil salesmen.  You should also be wary of any healthcare product that is sold exclusively either over the Internet or through mail-order advertisements. The best course of action is to ask your physician about the effectiveness of a particular product or program before you buy it.  As for the coronavirus specifically, the best place to get reliable information is  the World Health Organization https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus or the CDC at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

It is also important to remember B.S. – Be skeptical.  If there really was a simple pill that could treat or prevent the Coronavirus it would be discussed extensively in conventional news sources and not coming to you first through a text message, email or social media post from someone about whom you know nothing.

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.”  Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

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