The history books will one day tell that in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Americans ordered to shelter at home deployed the widespread use of social media and all available digital platforms to stay connected with family, friends, carry on their businesses, offer and provide essential services to the public, and operate the various governments at all levels. Although many people previously considered technology to be an infringement on their privacy, those views were quickly muffled by the new social distancing reality created by the pandemic. For most, family, friends and life in general took on a greater and more special meaning than ever before when all the distractions of life were minimized by the sheltering at home orders.

The crisis brought out the best in people. Neighbors watched out for neighbors, checking on them and delivering food to them. Businesses retooled their plants to manufacture much needed personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential supplies. People got closer to their relatives and thousands of medical professionals traveled cross country to help their colleagues in hospitals in New York City and the greater metropolitan area. But just as the crisis brought out the best in people's character, unfortunately it also presented opportunities for those unscrupulous individuals in our society to use the confusion, panic and fear as a smokescreen to prey upon and scam the public. Recent arrests concerning these varied and extensive criminal endeavors in the cyber related realm will be addressed in this article.

Tricks, Threats, Lures and Smokescreens

Concomitantly, with the public's deployment of social media and telecommunication vehicles to stay connected, fraudsters deployed their full arsenal of digital tricks to separate victims from their hard earned and much needed cash. Since the pandemic exacted its grip over the United States in March of this year we have seen a multitude of criminal enterprises being unearthed by law enforcement. That famous adage repeated frequently in the dawn of television in the 1950s by the fictional Hawaiian detective, Inspector Charlie Chan, comes to mind: "large sugar bowl tempts many flies." One can see it come to life just about every night on the evening news as reports are given of the unaware, scared, and/or vulnerable victims preyed upon by all forms of cyber criminals.

The COVID-19 pandemic is being leveraged by scammers to steal the identities and assets of the unwary. Scammers have created bogus websites purporting to be charities collecting for medical workers, or on behalf of government agencies such as the Center for Disease Control (CDC), or crowd funding campaigns, or even selling counterfeit products including sanitizing products, personal protective equipment such as masks, goggles, face shields, gowns and gloves.

Fake emails have been sent out purporting to contain links suppling information on the pandemic, but in actuality the link when clicked transmits and installs malware to the target computer causing a host of issues that can result in files being permanently locked from their owner until a ransom is paid or the malware steals personal information including the theft of one's identity.

Bogus phishing emails have been reported in which the scammers request personal identifying information to allegedly facilitate the transmission of the economic stimulus checks the Federal government is issuing pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program. See generally Alert Number I-032020-PSA, FBI Sees Rise in Fraud Schemes Related To the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, March 20, 2020.

Some crimes may go unreported during this period for various reasons. For instance, ransomware deployed by criminals may be particularly effective against those targets who may choose to quickly pay the demands for the release of their encrypted files, rather than report the extortionate threats to authorities, and wait for law enforcement's response while potentially losing use of important files during the pandemic. See generally, e.g., United States v. McCormick, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132040 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 7, 2019). Moreover, a new strain of ransomware seeking to play on COVID-19 fears puts a different spin on things. Its aim is identity theft and surreptitiously acts in the background mining private data, while the files on the infected device get encrypted and a Bitcoin ransom is demanded. The blackmail is a smokescreen, for the real goal is to distract victims from the installation of a nasty "infostealer" Trojan called KPOT. Lee Mathews, Coronavirus Ransomware Uses Scare Tactics To Deliver Nasty Info-Stealing Trojan, Forbes (March 12, 2020).

Additionally, how much lower can one stoop than to make extortionate robo calls threatening to leave COVID-19 contaminated matter at the victim's residence? These threats cajole a victim to pay a fee by wire transfer or other transfer methodology for protection against a threat that the invisible virus may be left on the target's door, porch or mail box. See, e.g., Ethan Wolff-Mann, The Coronavirus Robocall Scams Are Emerging, Yahoo Finance, March 6, 2020.

To be sure, the unscrupulous take full advantage during a pandemic. With the value of personal protective equipment such as gloves and protective coveralls sky rocketing, reports of stolen cargo, hoarding and price gauging are rampant. See, e.g., Kelly Tyko, Coronavirus Price Gouging: Face Mask Prices Increased 166% on Amazon, Report Finds, USA TODAY (March 11, 2020). In an attempt to defraud the government and squander limited resources, an individual was charged with wire fraud in representing to the government that he could supply 125 million face masks for $750 million. The defendant reportedly promised that he could obtain "millions of genuine 3M masks" from domestic factories "when he knew that fulfilling the orders would not be possible," according to the FBI. Johnny Diaz and Aimee Ortiz, Man Charged in Scheme to Sell 125 Million Nonexistent Masks, New York Times (April 11, 2020).

Scamming is not a business without risks, as the litany of cases described above demonstrates. The same tools used by the fraudsters to victimize the unwary are used in reverse by capable sleuths to discover, track and find these perpetrators. For whatever digital device the fraudsters use, they leave a trail like breadcrumbs that can be tracked back to their lairs. The cell phones they utilize for their threatening scams and product lures create cell site trails leading back to their doorsteps. The computers they use to send out their phishing nets create digital pathways through their computer usage back to their sources.

The webpages, email and other digitized tricks the perpetrators create to deceive the public into donating their hard earned dollars to an apparent worthy cause are kept ad in finitum by the Internet archive storage warehouse, the wayback machine, https://archive.org/web/, with over 424 billion web pages already accessible in storage. And of course, pre-digital age evidence may be available, for instance, their accomplices can be pressured to turn on them because as another old adage goes, there is no honor among thieves.

Conclusion

Of course, the best scenario is not to fall prey and become a victim. Individuals may avoid these many traps unearthed by law enforcement across the country by educating themselves before clicking on a link, sending money for products or making donations. There is a wealth of information published on government websites that can be used determine if the solicitors and the solicitations are truly legitimate and are who they claim to be.

For instance, information concerning the legitimacy of certain products including personal protective equipment (PPE) may be found at www.cdc.gov/niosh, on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website, www.fda.gov, and the Environmental Protection Agency website, www.epa.gov. A victim of counterfeit products may contact FBI at www.ic3.gov or the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center at iprcenter.gov or your local police precinct or prosecutor's office. Moreover, for accurate and up-to-date information on COVID-19, the CDC's website includes updated extensive guidance and information at www.cdc.gov and www.coronavirus.gov. Your primary care physician and other medical professionals may also be consulted for specialized guidance.

Peter A. Crusco is of counsel at the Law Offices of Hariri & Crispo.