Survey shows rise in robocalls amid COVID‑19 fears

Survey shows rise in robocalls amid COVID‑19 fears

The unsolicited phone calls tout everything from miracle cures to financial relief – here’s how you can stay safe



The public concern and confusion surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have offered an array of opportunities for con artists, who have pulled every trick from their books to cash in on people – including by dint of robocalls. A recent survey conducted by senior services company Provision Living and involving 4,038 Americans speaks volumes in this regard.


“Nearly a quarter of respondents said they’ve experienced an increase in robocalls since COVID-19 and 1 in 5 people have received a robocall regarding COVID-19,” said the survey. Most commonly, the robocalls and text messages claimed to provide treatment (22%), financial relief (18%), and free COVID-19 testing (18%).


To be sure, this won’t surprise our regular readers, who are by now well aware of coronavirus-themed scams that involve fake charities, bogus testing kits, credit card-stealing websites, and even extortion, to name just a few recurrent riffs on the same theme.


But let’s go back to the survey, which showed that two out of five callers claimed to represent the Social Security Administration (SSA), 38% impersonated Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials, and over a third claimed to be from travel companies. These all seem to be clever ruses since the pandemic has forced a lot of people to cancel their vacation plans and some have fallen on hard times.


A total of 15% ha ..

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