Coronavirus scammers set up fake testing sites to profit off pandemic

'Capitalizing on this crisis to reap illicit profits or otherwise preying on Americans is reprehensible and will not be tolerated'

Scammers in Kentucky are setting up fake coronavirus testing sites to try to make a buck off the pandemic.

Officials in the state are warning residents in and around Louisville to be wary of fake coronavirus testing facilities.

According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, medical marketing companies are offering bogus coronavirus tests and have charged people up to $250 per test.

In one instance, a “testing site” claimed they could return results within 24 hours.

The city’s Metro Council President David James called the tests “a scam” to game Medicaid.

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A spokesman for Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the city had received several calls about the testing sites and that the police were investigating the claims for “further review and possible action.”

“They would test somebody and use the same gloves they used on the person before. They get your $240 plus they can turn in fake Medicaid claims,” he told local broadcast station WDRB.

Edward Beighley, the president of BCK Marketing, operated a test location held in a church parking lot. He told the Courier-Journal that his tests - which cost $200 and allegedly included testing for “19 other pathogens” - was done via telehealth with three doctors.

He said that if the doctors determined someone had enough symptoms to warrant testing, their swabs were sent via FedEx to one of two labs in California.

People who utilised the testing sites had to give both their insurance information and their Social Security numbers to the operators.

Indiana also had to contend with fraudsters attempting to profit from the coronavirus.

The state’s Attorney General, Curtis Hill, had to issue a warning against the tests, and both the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration have put out consumer warnings about the tests.

According to USA Today, a Texas-based website was selling a coronavirus “vaccine” until it was shot down by authorities, and telephone scammers in Virginia were posing as hospital representatives and telling people that they’d been exposed to scare them into visiting scam test sites.

In Austin, Texas, federal action was taken against the website “coronavirustmedicalkit.com,” calling it a scheme seeking to “profit from the confusion and widespread fear surrounding COVID-19.”

The site - which has since been shuttered and featured a photo of Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - offered phoney “World Health Organization” vaccine kits for free, so long as the buyer pays the $4.95 shipping fee.

The US Deputy Attorney General, Jeffrey Rosen, said the fraudsters wouldn’t be tolerated in a memo sent to federal prosecutors last week.

“Capitalizing on this crisis to reap illicit profits or otherwise preying on Americans is reprehensible and will not be tolerated,” he said.