The Department of Homeland Security office leading the national clampdown on fraudulent coronavirus treatments and medical equipment has opened more than 500 cases, as scammers attempt to manipulate the public and government.
Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of the DHS, launched Operation Stolen Promise this spring to go after individuals and organizations attempting to sell counterfeit products, including coronavirus test kits, treatments, masks, and cleaning products.
“Despite the danger and uncertainty this global pandemic has caused, individuals and organizations around the world are attempting to take advantage of it for illicit financial gain,” HSI’s website states. “These illegal efforts not only compromise legitimate trade and financial systems but threaten the integrity of the U.S. border and endanger the safety and security of the American public.”
The office has investigated nearly 25,000 website domains and chased down more than 600 leads in the two months since the United States went into lockdown over the pandemic. HSI recruited private sector companies, including Pfizer, 3M, Citi, Amazon, and Merck, to help investigators verify products in question.
As of Tuesday evening, HSI reported 14 criminal arrests, $3.4 million in illicit profits seized, and 532 coronavirus-related seizures. Steve Francis, HSI’s National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center director, told the Associated Press the agency had seen suspects from 20 countries attempt to export fake products.
In one such instance, a British man in Los Angeles was charged with smuggling mislabeled drugs into the U.S. that were supposedly a treatment for the virus. In another, a Georgia man was arrested in April for illegally importing then selling an unregistered pesticide that he claimed could protect from the virus.
