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1 1 (March 31, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govecvp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: aCongressional SResearch Service Tabulating COVID-19-Related Fraud and Financial Loss March 31, 2021 Fraudsters have leveraged the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to take advantage of both individuals and organizations. Their schemes range from posing as representatives of a charitable organization or government agency and tricking individuals into providing money or personally identifiable information (PII), to selling bogus or counterfeit treatments or vaccines for COVID-19 or protective equipment and medical devices, that may or may not be delivered after victims submit payment. Scammers have also tried to use stolen PII to gain access to and steal unemployment benefits and economic impact payments provided pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act; P.L. 116-136) and other legislation aimed at providing COVID-19-related relief and recovery. While the pandemic has created new opportunities for fraudsters, they still rely upon a number of tried- and-true tools to scam victims or gain access to information, accounts, and resources. For instance, they continue to make robocalls, phish for information through emails and social media, install malware on unsuspecting users' devices, and exploit technology vulnerabilities. In addition, criminals leverage both the surface web and dark web to facilitate these schemes. In conducting oversight over federal law enforcement's efforts to investigate COVID-19-related fraud and the associated financial losses, policymakers may look to available data surrounding these scams to aid them with their work. Reporting COVID-19 Scams There is no central repository where individuals and organizations report complaints of fraud, COVID-19- related or otherwise. However, there are a number of reporting systems for the public to report suspected incidents of fraud, and those systems may share information to help law enforcement collect and deconflict public complaints about such incidents, including those related to COVID-19. Examples of federal entities to which victims may report include the following: National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF). The NCDF is a repository for the public to report complaints of disaster-related fraud to the Department of Justice (DOJ). It was created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and continues to serve as a resource for Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11640 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Membersand Committeesof Congress