Don’t fall for Coronavirus email scams!

Scammers love to jump on anything that’s in the news and take advantage of the situation. Predictably, they’re now using the real global threat of Coronavirus to steal money and personal information via email.

In this case, some of them are pretending to be from the World Health Organization. The WHO has a good page set up on spotting these scams. In general, here’s a good list of things to keep in mind when it comes to suspicious email:

If an email seems too good to be true, it is. Recognize that tests – especially in the United States – are in short supply. You won’t get an email from the WHO or other medical group about getting tested or vaccinated.

Don’t click links in emails. Go to the website directly: open your web browser and type in the address instead. This guarantees you’re going to the right site instead of to a phishing site that might look like the one you meant to go to.

Calm Down. Scammers often use ALL CAPS and scary warnings about what could happen if you don’t respond to their emails quickly. They do this to make you panic. Take a second to think about what the email says, who it says it’s from, and if any of that makes sense for your situation.

Don’t send passwords or personal info. Especially in the medical world, but this applies everywhere. Don’t ever respond to an email with your password, credit card, SSN or other personal info. Even for a legitimate request, email is a very unsafe way of sending private info.