Scam Warning: Fraudsters Using New Tactics to Steal Personal Data During COVID-19 Pandemic

Harrisburg, PA — Pennsylvanians should take steps to protect themselves from phishing scams that are targeting people who are expecting a stimulus payment from the federal government following the outbreak of COVID-19, the Department of Revenue and Department of Banking and Securities announced today.

“As we all work together to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, this unprecedented situation has created new opportunities for criminals to target Pennsylvanians, including those who are vulnerable or struggling,” Revenue Secretary Dan Hassell said. “We want to remind everyone that they should not provide their direct deposit or other banking information to anyone who contacts them on the phone, through email or text messages, or on social media.”

The stimulus payments, otherwise known as economic impact payments, are being distributed by the federal government as part of the federal economic stimulus legislation that was signed into law in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the IRS, in most cases the payments will be directly deposited into the bank accounts that taxpayers previously listed on their federal tax returns.

However, the IRS has reported seeing a surge of scam artists perpetrating phishing schemes where they pose as government officials to trick people into turning over their banking information. Doing so may allow a criminal to steal your identity, file a fraudulent tax return in your name or use your personal data for other illicit purposes.

“If you have received an unsolicited email or phone call asking for your personal or financial information, the safest response is to delete the email or hang up the phone,” advised Acting Secretary of Banking and Securities Richard Vague. “Consumers must remain vigilant about protecting their finances, especially if they are being pressured to act quickly.”

How to Recognize the Scam

According to the IRS, some of the electronic messages associated with these phishing scams say, “In order to receive your stimulus check via direct deposit, you will need to confirm your banking information.” These messages are targeting not only individual citizens, but also tax professionals.

Pennsylvanians are encouraged to remember several warning signs from the IRS, which says scammers may:

• Emphasize the words “Stimulus Check” or “Stimulus Payment.” The official term is economic impact payment.
• Ask the taxpayer to sign over their economic impact payment check to them.
• Ask by phone, email, text or social media for verification of personal and/or banking information saying that the information is needed to receive or speed up their economic impact payment.
• Suggest that they can get a tax refund or economic impact payment faster by working on the taxpayer’s behalf. This scam could be conducted by social media or even in person.
• Mail the taxpayer a bogus check, perhaps in an odd amount, then tell the taxpayer to call a number or verify information online in order to cash it.

Tips to Avoid Scams

• Look for imposters: Many times, criminals will pose as a government entity or an official business. If you are targeted by a scam artist through the mail, phone or email, do not provide personal information or money until you are sure you are speaking to a legitimate representative.
• Approach unusual attachments and links with caution: Links to a website or attachments to an email could be infected with malware that download malicious software. Spyware can track the recipient’s keystrokes to obtain passwords, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or other sensitive information.
• Conduct research online: Using information included in a potentially fraudulent notice or communication, such as email address domain name, company name, address or telephone number, conduct a search online to see if a scam has been reported by other people or government agencies.

Tips to Remember About Stimulus Payments

The U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS announced the stimulus payments will be distributed automatically, with no action required for most people. Read the IRS press release, Economic Impact Payments: What You Need to Know, for further information. The IRS also said it would post additional information on IRS.gov/coronavirus as it becomes available.

Steps to Follow if You Are a Victim of a Scam

The Department of Revenue reminds taxpayers that it has a Fraud Detection and Analysis Unit dedicated to assisting victims of identity theft and combating tax refund fraud.

If you are a victim of identity theft or discover a fraudulent Pennsylvania personal income tax return was filed using your identity, please contact the Fraud Detection and Analysis Unit by emailing RA-RVPITFRAUD@pa.gov.

For more information on ways to protect yourself, visit Revenue’s Identity Theft Victim Assistance webpage. You can also find further information about protecting yourself online at PA.gov/Cybersecurity.

Find more information on COVID-19-related financial scams. Anyone can contact the Department of Banking and Securities at 1-800-PA-BANKS or 1-800-600-0007 to ask questions or file complaints about financial transactions, companies, or products. If you believe you have fallen victim to a scam, contact local law enforcement through a non-emergency number.

Visit the commonwealth’s Responding to COVID-19 guide for the latest guidance and resources for Pennsylvanians or the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s dedicated coronavirus webpage  for the most up-to-date information regarding COVID-19.

Correctional Industries is Making COVID-Related Supplies
for DOC, Other State Agencies

Harrisburg, PA – Beginning March 17, Pennsylvania Correctional Industries (PCI) stopped production at its garment factories system-wide to focus on manufacturing cloth masks to be used by Department of Corrections employees and inmates.

“As part of the Department of Corrections preparedness planning, in mid-March, I directed all of our employees and inmates to wear masks,” said Sec. John Wetzel. “We didn’t want to take from the community supply, so we began making the masks in-house at several of our state prisons.”

To date, PCI has made a total of 185,136 masks, which have been supplied to all DOC facilities and offices, including parole agents and parole supervision staff.  DOC employees were provided with three masks each, and every inmate was provided with two masks.

“Over the weekend, at the request of the governor’s office, we manufactured and shipped cloth masks for essential commonwealth employees,” Wetzel added.

Other COVID-19 related items now being made daily by PCI include:

• 36,000 bars of anti-bacterial soap
• 255 gowns
• 1,620 packs/27 cases of PDF-45 Disinfectant

Inmates are working 12-hour shifts, six days a week to produce these items.

PCI is a bureau within the DOC that employs inmates to produce a variety of items that are available for sale to non-profit organizations and government entities located throughout Pennsylvania. It is self-sustaining through the sale of products and services and receives no taxpayer money.

Online grocery services struggle to meet spike in demand
By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer
LONDON (AP) — A pandemic forcing everyone to stay home could be the perfect moment for online grocery services. In practice, they’ve been struggling to keep up with a surge in orders, highlighting their limited ability to respond to an unprecedented onslaught of demand. After panic buying left store shelves stripped, many shoppers quickly found online grocery delivery slots almost impossible to come by, too. The problem for many delivery services is ramping up staff to pick goods in shops and deliver. But for Britain’s Ocado, which relies on warehouse robots, significantly increasing deliveries would mean a big investment in new machinery and warehouses that’s too late to catch the demand spike.

Dozens of shots fired in Pittsburgh drive-by; 2 wounded
A drive-by shooting in which dozens of shots were fired in a Pittsburgh neighborhood has left two people hospitalized. Authorities say the shooting in the city’s Arlington Heights neighborhood occurred around 11:45 p.m. Monday. But it’s not yet known what sparked the extensive gunfire. Witnesses reported hearing more than 50 shots fired. A man and a woman were both wounded and remained hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition. But their names and further details on their injuries were not disclosed. They told police the shots came from a passing vehicle, though it wasn’t clear how many shooters may have been involved.

(Vanport,Pa.)   Eaton Corp.  has reopened its Vanport plant and will gradually resume operations this week after suspending operations on March 25 when it was reported that seven salary employees and one hourly employee tested positive for the COVID-19 Corona Virus.

The company plans to reopen in phases, with groups of employees returning every day through Thursday. Sixty employees were already on-site Monday. This included some assembly line workers.

Allegheny Health Department director Dr. Debra Bogen and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald joined U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb yesterday for a virtual town hall meeting. Lamb answered questions from the participants about the federal stimulus and unemployment. Lamb also gave updates on the COVID-19 Coronavirus on the federal and local level. He discussed how he is pleased about the federal government’s most recent bipartisan stimulus package providing cash payments to millions of Americans and extending unemployment eligibility to the self-employed and other groups.

One of the big issues locally has been the unemployment problems of filing and when will self-employed citizens be able to file. Lamb stated that Self-employed workers who have submitted a claim can expect to receive benefits within two weeks to a month.

Beaver County Radio’s Frank Sparks participated in the call and said that  Representative Lamb told the participants the same thing he said in an interview on Beaver County Radio last week that many Pennsylvanians who qualify for the federal government’s $1,200 cash payments can expect to receive that money after April 13, but those who filed taxes using direct deposit will receive rebates first. For those who do not have direct deposit and can’t wait for a paper check, Lamb said the IRS is expected to make available an online portal for qualifiers to sign up for direct deposit. The first batch of paper checks would go out in the first week of May, starting with lowest income Americans, but could take months to arrive.

Those relying on social security benefits can expect to receive their stimulus through the normal social security system and are not required to file a claim, Lamb said.