Protecting Yourself From Covid-19 Cyber Scams

By Arthur Moses Opio

As the Lockdown continues, we continue to purpose and strive to give you reliable cybersecurity information so that you aren't a victim of a scam.

As the world continues with the struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, One of the greatest desires of people as noticed on different WhatsApp forums or Facebook, Twitter, etc. There is a scramble to find trustworthy information about the spread of the disease and how they can protect themselves, how they can get tested, and more. It is unfortunate that some of information gotten has led people to self medicate hence leading to poisoning, this link has more https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/23/africa/chloroquine-trump-nigeria-intl/index.html.

It is very unfortunate that spammers and scammers of the world are using the situation to take advantage of people whether learned or unlearned, most of the people may be more vulnerable to their nefarious efforts than usual during these uncertain times. Fear and panic is one of the key psychological tricks that they use out of their TRICK BOX.

DICTS encourages all staff to be vigilant and to look out for some of these tricks.

1. YOU CAN'T BUY A COVID-19 "CURE"

Many of the COVID-19 scams going around involve attempts by companies and individuals to sell products they claim to prevent or cure the novel coronavirus, which has already killed over 22295 people in the world, you can get the statistics from https://coronavirus.mak.ac.ug/.
Scam Artists only try to make quick money off people. They peddle fake remedies ranging from colloidal silver to cow manure or anything you can name (locally, there are concoctions that people keep sharing) and they can be a threat to public health. But the novel coronavirus is new and there is no known cure yet. Vaccine trials are underway, but any scalable results are months away at best.

2. WATCH OUT FOR SCAM EMAILS AND TEXTS

There are many phishing schemes, some of them a scammer sends an email or text meant to trick you into handing over your personal information, have gotten very sophisticated in recent years and can include elements like official imagery or email addresses that look similar to email addresses used by official businesses/institutions.

To spot COVID-19 email and text scams, look for generic greetings (like “Hello, Sir/Madame”), requests for confirmation of personal information, or emails related to sharing your password because an update on the mail server is going to be done, or emails saying that staff is meant to update their HR information and you are requested to click a link. Such emails should help you judge whether or not an email from a company/institution is legitimate. If a message’s language seems urgent, as though it’s attempting to pressure you into giving up your information to avert some sort of data disaster, it could very well be fake. If you receive a suspicious email from a particular company/institution or even a friend or your employer, contact them separately on phone.