North Carolina's top lawyer and law enforcement officer is warning residents about scams related to the coronavirus. The Attorney General's Office expects the number of these will continue to grow as more coronavirus cases are confirmed.
The agency says scammers are trying a number of tactics to exploit people's fears about COVID-19.
They've received more than two-dozen complaints about potential fraud. Many are related to price gouging for items like groceries, hand sanitizer, and gasoline.
Attorney General Josh Stein says people also need to be aware of fake charities and cautious of anyone soliciting a miracle cure or vaccination. He says email scams are also a concern.
“There was one that was promoting they were the web page of Johns Hopkins, which had a map of the outbreak, of the coronavirus across the country, and if you clicked on the map it released a malware into your system and sucked up all of the personal, private data that was on the computer network,” he says.
Stein urges anyone who believes they're a victim of a coronavirus scam to call his office at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or report it online.
For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here.
*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news