A Tale of Two Spikes: COVID-19 and Check Fraud
- More than one kind of spike is occurring because of COVID-19
- After an early surge in fraud attempts, another seems sure to accompany the second wave of relief checks
- The IRS' Get My Payment page is set up to help persons track their checks
If you've been following the news, you've heard warnings about COVID-19 infection spikes as a result of seasonal and behavioral factors. Another unfortunate spike related to the pandemic is check fraud.
As reported in the Latin Post:
U.S citizens were reportedly lost over $100 million because of the coronavirus pandemic and the stimulus check fraud, as per the new study by The Ascent. The data showed that there are about 160,000 fraud cases filed during May 2020 only.
But check fraud was far from the the only technique unleashed upon the masses:
Amidst the health crisis and the long-wait of the second round of stimulus payments, here are the primary types of fraud that U.S. citizens encountered:
- Selling fake COVID-19 vaccine kits
- Marketing of fake at-home COVID-19 test kits
- Robocalls offer scam services like inexpensive insurance that targets landlines and mobiles.
- Convincing people to pay upfront for a fake work-from-home jobs
- Stimulus payments are stolen through different forms of individual's identity theft
- For exorbitant prices, personal protective equipment is sold with delivery dates that are impossible to meet
As Congress moves toward a second stimulus payout agreement, we can be assured that the flurry of checks will bring with it another spike of fraud attempts aimed at recipients across the country. C|Net offers a list of check fraud techniques to be on the lookout for when the next wave of relief checks is released:
Once Congress agrees upon a timeline for a second wave of stimulus checks and they are in the mail, anyone can go to the IRS' Get My Payment page to keep track of where that second stimulus check might be. Tapping the blue Get My Payment button reveals the status of the individual economic impact payment, which helps a great deal when faced with scammers using delays and confusion to perpetrate financial crimes.
To help the industry combat the fraudsters, we are devoting an entire session entitled Fighting Fraud at our ORBOIMPACT Virtual Conference. This session will be held on Friday, October 30, with special guest Dal Bolt, NCP, APP, Director at ECCHO, sharing his insights during the Check Fraud Detection Round Table. Additionally, we will be sharing the results from our Exploration of Check Fraud in 2020 survey (click here to take part in the survey).
