Beware: Website claiming to sell coronavirus vaccine turn off by US active in India
24 March, 2020
THE UNITED STATES Department of Justice announced Sunday it had turn off a website claiming to sell a coronavirus vaccine, in its first act of federal enforcement against fraud regarding the the pandemic.
Lawsuits have been filed against the website coronavirusmedicalkit.com, which claimed to market vaccines for COVID-19, the disease due to the novel coronavirus, when actually there is no such vaccine, the Justice Department said in a statement.
However, the website continues to be accessible in India.
In line with the US Justice Department, a Texas federal judge on Saturday ordered the website to turn off. Its homepage, however, was still accessible by Sunday evening.
"Due to the recent outbreak for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the World Health Organization is giving away vaccine kits. Just pay $4.95 for shipping," read a statement on the homepage.
The web site claims, “You just have to add water, and the drugs and vaccines will be ready to be administered.”
“There are two parts to the kit: one holds pellets containing the chemical machinery that synthesises the finish product, and the other holds pellets containing instructions that tell the drug which compound to create. Mix two parts together in a chosen combination, add water, and the procedure is ready,” the website claims about a non-existent vaccine.
It also carries photographs of the supposed medical kit, and ostensible testimonials of users with incongruent text that appears to have already been copied from some report about how the coronavirus spreads.
When you select ‘order now’, the web site goes to ‘Fedex’ form to complete your contact details, including email address, phone number and your home address for delivery, promising to ship the ‘test kit’ all over the world. It also asks for your credit card information and directs you to help make the payment.
It really is imperative that the Indian government take immediate steps to remove or block the website.
The US Justice Department did not specify how many persons fell victim to the scam, but the investigation is ongoing to recognize who's behind the fraud and how much cash was stolen.
The intervention by the federal judiciary system is part of ongoing efforts by US authorities to combat the spread of misinformation that has blossomed since the start of pandemic.
Attorney General Bill Barr the other day urged federal prosecutors to create stopping misinformation a priority and called US civilians to report all such abuses to the National Center for Disaster Fraud.
He also warned citizens against a range of scams including selling fake treatments online, imitating emails from the WHO or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) designed to collect personal data, and asking for donations for imaginary organisations.
A lot more than 33,000 people have already been infected by the coronavirus in america, and 416 have died, according to a tracker managed by Johns Hopkins University.
Source: www.deccanchronicle.com