Town of Fenwick Island

COVID-19 Stimulus Scams

Congress has recently passed a large COVID-19 relief and stimulus package.  As with other aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, fraudsters are exploiting the relief and stimulus to victimize the public.  The U.S. Secret Service is observing a rise in stimulus relief fraud over the past several days and expect the fraud attempts to continue throughout the pandemic.

Criminal actors are using a variety of means to contact potential victims.  In one instance, the criminal actors are using spoofed email address posing as U.S. Treasury officials requesting that the victim provide personal identifying information (PII) so that they can receive their share of the stimulus. 

Other than via email, criminal actors are contacting potential victims via SMS/text, robocalls, and other messaging platforms.  Through texts, criminal actors are sending links which directs individual to a website which then prompts the potential victim to enter PII and other sensitive information, such as bank account numbers, email addresses, and passwords. 

The attack contains the victim’s real name, giving the text an appearance of legitimacy.  Official stimulus/relief information regarding COVID-19 will never be sent via text/SMS or any other messaging platforms.

Foreign partners are also seeing an uptick in COVID-19 stimulus relief fraud.  The U.S. Secret Service anticipates instances of similar fraud affecting U.S. citizens in the coming weeks.  The method is the same – a potential victim will receive a text message directing them to a link.  Once they reach the link, they are prompted to enter a variety of PII data.  

The U.S. Secret Service stresses that individual seeking information about the stimulus/relief program to contact the specific government agency via its website for guidance.  Individuals should follow protocols published by those government websites.  During this time, it is stressed that the public maintain an increased vigilance when providing any PII or other privileged and protected information.

The U.S. Secret Service is working with domestic and foreign law enforcement partners, along with the private sector, to disrupt and dismantle COVID-19 related fraud schemes.  If anyone has any information related to this alert, the GIOC can be contact at GIOC@usss.dhs.gov.