LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has created the perfect breeding ground from scam artists, and now they are after people who want the vaccine for the disease.
According the Better Business Bureau, scammers have started to contact people, offering to give them the COVID-19 vaccines with a few conditions.
"A lot of people are really wanting this vaccine, (and) scam artists do come out of the wood work with things like this," BBB Louisville President Reanna Smith-Hamblin said.
On Wednesday, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said his office expects scammers will try to pose as distributors, medical providers or even health department officials claiming to need your personal information or a payment for a vaccine.
"Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen scammers attempt to take advantage of consumers by capitalizing on the circumstances surrounding COVID-19, whether it be with fraudulent pop-up testing sites, fake COVID-19 cures, or online work-from-home scams, and we expect that scammers will try to use the rollout of the new vaccine to their advantage," Cameron said in a news release.
Scammers, as is typical, are targeting the elderly. In this case — as many elderly people will soon be eligible to receive the vaccines — it creates a "scary" situation, Smith-Hamblin said.
"They are the most compromised in many ways and really need and want this vaccine," she said. "Scam artists are just taking advantage of them again."
In one scam seen nationally, a con artist has contacted people offering the Pfizer vaccine for $79.99. You just have to provide bank account information. Since the federal government is covering the cost of the vaccine for the foreseeable future, any request for payment is a red flag.
In addition, scam artists are also taking advantage of the possibility of additional stimulus checks being distributed to a large percentage of Americans.
"We are actually already getting reports on our scam tracker about these stimulus payments and scams surrounding them," Smith-Hamblin said.
Similar to the vaccine scams, scammers will call and ask for personal bank account information or even pose as the IRS.
To track all scams coming into the BBB, click here.
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