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HEALTH-VIRUS-US-JUSTICE-FRAUD
US orders first shutdown of website over coronavirus fraud
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The US Department of Justice
announced Sunday it had shut down a website claiming to sell a coronavirus
vaccine, in its first act of federal enforcement against fraud in connection
with the pandemic.
Lawsuits had been filed against the site coronavirusmedicalkit.com, which
claimed to sell vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel
coronavirus, when in fact there is no such vaccine, the Justice Department
said in a statement.
A Texas federal judge on Saturday ordered the site to shut down, according
to the statement. Its homepage, however, was still accessible as of Sunday
evening.
“Due to the recent outbreak for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the World Health
Organization is giving away vaccine kits. Just pay $4.95 for shipping,” read
a statement on the homepage.
It was followed by a place to leave bank account information to pay
shipping fees.
The Justice Department did not specify how many people fell victim to the
scam, but the investigation is ongoing to identify who is behind the fraud
and how much money was stolen.
The intervention by the federal judiciary system is part of ongoing efforts
by US authorities to combat the spread of misinformation that has blossomed
since the start of the pandemic.
Attorney General Bill Barr last week urged federal prosecutors to make
stopping misinformation a priority and called US civilians to report all such
abuses to the National Center for Disaster Fraud.
He also warned citizens against a variety of scams including selling fake
treatments online, imitating emails from the WHO or the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) intended to collect personal data, and asking
for donations for imaginary organizations.
Simultaneously, the US judicial system is on the warpath to combat price
gouging of products such as hand sanitizer or hygienic masks.
More than 33,000 people have been infected by the coronavirus in the US,
and 416 have died, according to a tracker managed by Johns Hopkins
University.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0841 hrs