The Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) introduced its 2nd advisory to financial institutions on July 7, 2020. The advisory is to help detect and stop COVID-19 consumer fraud. If reliable and cheap merchant services, including chargeback insurance, are what you’re interested in, keep on reading this post.
Warning From FinCEN
The 2nd guidance introduced by FinCEN offers warns about 2 different types of consumer fraud associated with COVID-19. These are imposter scams and money mule schemes.
Over 40 warnings have already been sent by the FTC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to companies offering products without any approval but claiming to prevent COVID-19. They’ve closed a website involved in the promotion of a vaccine that doesn’t exist in reality.
Be aware that fraudsters are sending scam texts with a link. When clicked on, the link will send malware to the target device. Contact tracers representing public health agencies aren’t sending messages with a link. Moreover, they aren’t asking people for money or sensitive data.
Coronavirus Scams & Chargeback Insurance
Coronavirus scams are becoming more and more widespread. As of Aug. 16, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had already received about 168.000 consumer complaints associated with COVID-19 and stimulus payments. Fraud or identity theft accounted for 2/3 of the mentioned complaints. Those who’ve been victimized have lost $110.6 million: the median loss has made up $286.
All this once again highlights the importance of working only with a true payments expert that can help you sidestep payment processing fraud and scams without major headaches. A trustworthy and experienced merchant processor can help you with chargeback insurance and the most advanced fraud prevention techniques.
By the way, imposter scams are rather widespread these days. What scammers are doing is introducing themselves as representatives from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), or from another organization or academic institution in the healthcare field.
As you see, currently, it’s too important to be careful when browsing for information about COVID-19. To avoid falling into the scammers’ trap, make sure you’re on the legitimate CDC and WHO websites. Besides, don’t trust online offers promising vaccination or cure for COVID-19.
Author Bio:- Blair Thomas has been a music producer, bouncer, screenwriter and for over a decade has been the proud Co-Founder of eMerchantBroker, the highest rated high risk merchant account processor in the country that can best help you with chargeback insurance. He has climbed in the Himalayas, survived a hurricane, and lived on a gold mine in the Yukon. He currently calls Thailand his home with a lifetime collection of his favorite books.
