SAN ANTONIO – The Federal Trade Commission is warning people about a new scam involving people who pretend to work as COVID-19 contract tracers for health departments.
Here is how you can spot the scam:
- Real contact tracers won’t ask you for money.
- Contact tracing doesn’t require your bank account or credit card number.
- Contract tracers won’t ask you for your Social Security number.
- Real tracers won’t ask for your immigration status.
- Do not click on a link in a text or email that you don’t recognize.
Watch out for these COVID-19 scams
Kandace Morris said she gets bombarded with spam calls every day. She says she’s disappointed that people would take advantage of a situation like this.
“Unless I’m anticipating a call from somebody most of the time, I’ll just ignore them,” Morris said.
“There’s scammers that are going to take advantage of anything, but a pandemic? Come on. That’s low, that’s unfortunate,” Morris added.
The City of San Antonio has rolled out a new caller ID feature to aid with contact tracing since a lot of people are not answering their phones. Calls from the Metropolitan Health District will show up on the caller ID as “SA Health Department.”
Metro Health said it will never ask for any credit card information or money.
If you have any questions, you can always call the COVID-19 hotline at 210-207-5779.
Metro Health Interim Director Dr. Colleen Bridger said the city is also working on a COVID-19 text messaging system for contact tracing.
How senior citizens who need help running errands can avoid scammers