Coronavirus Danger Now Includes Fraud Scams, U.K. Police Say

  • Scams include phishing attacks, fake offers of masks, cops say
  • More than $1 million in losses reported in virus-based fraud

Protective masks sit in a pile at a facility in Hong Kong.

Photographer: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg
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As the threat of a coronavirus increases in the U.K., scammers are introducing it as a ploy to defraud unsuspecting people, the police said.

The frauds range from fake sellers of protective face masks that are never delivered to coronavirus-themed phishing attacks, with criminals often pretending to represent the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization, the City of London police said in a statement on Friday.