Dr Oz and Robert Siciliano Expose Vaccine Scams

It's an urgent OzAlert.

Hello, this is Sarah calling from your local state health department.

COVID vaccine scams are on the rise, from phony calls to fake texts, emails, and websites. We're taking you inside the shocking trend and revealing the 5 things you need to know so you don't become a victim. Coming up next.

Today we're coming to you with an urgent alert. COVID-19 vaccine scams are on the rise. So we're going to give you the inside scoop on 5 ways to spot a scammer because no one, I mean no one, should fall victim to something like this. Senior Oz investigative correspondent Marci Gavacampo reports on this growing trend.

Now that COVID-19 vaccines are slowly becoming a reality, criminals are quickly getting to work online creating vaccine scams to take advantage of us.

The worst scams out there?

Fake vaccine offers on the dark web. Here's one example. It says, "Now prices low, $120 US." Here's another one. This time the vaccine is selling for $1,000. And this one says, "About the price, each vial is $5,000." $5,000, that is outrageous because you can't buy a vaccine online, and when one does become available to you, it will be free. The cybersecurity firm Check Point says since December, ads for fake Fake vaccines on the dark web have increased 400%. And here's a different online vaccine scam. Unsolicited emails offering access to vaccines. This one says, "New approved vaccines." But I'm not going to open this one because do you see how it ends in the letters .exe? An email ending in .exe could contain malicious software. And if I click on it, it could begin immediately downloading sensitive personal, medical, or financial information. Today, How to protect yourself from online COVID-19 vaccine scams.

Amazing, Doctor. It's shocking to hear you would take advantage of people, especially when they're down, desperate looking for vaccines. We're joined now by Robert Siciliano, an identity theft and security expert. Robert, you've studied scams like this for years. Are you surprised by what Mara just reported? This huge uptick, 400%, is that right? 400%— 400% increase in fake ads for vaccines.

Well, not at all. You know, so bad guys, they use like love and romance, wealth and money, and health and happiness to lure us. They use that as bait. And right now with COVID-19 and the vaccine, this is the perfect storm for bad guys to use us as their marks.

So let's start with the first vaccine scam to look for phony text-only smishing, SMS-ishing, I guess. Mara, walk us through how this works.

So here's how this works, Dr. Oz. First, you will get a text message from someone claiming to be from an online pharmacy. It'll look like this. They'll say that you can reserve your place for the vaccine with another message. And they'll tell you you have to click on a link to reserve your spot. The link will look like this. Do not click on that link because this is a scam.

It's like a dream come true, right? Not so easy. I wish it was that simple. And I know that you're saying right now, as you said, as you're watching the show, I would never go for that head fake. I'm telling you, it's happening. That's why they're increasing these ads, or else they would have stopped trying to steal your money. But no one is going to be solicited, Robert, by a phone or a text. I mean, we don't have enough vaccines anyway. It's not so easy. But no one's going to come to you and say, hey, I've got a spot for you.

—Yeah, there's no incoming communications that are legit where the phone rings or an email comes in. Basically right now all local, state, and federal agencies are setting up, you know, they're setting up facilities so you can go get the vaccine. You do a quick search on your state websites, you'll find all the information you need to get the vaccine and set an appointment.

So how can someone get in line for a vaccine? What are the legitimate ways, Mara?

Yeah, so the first thing you want to do is you want to check health department websites, both state and local, and you want to see if you're eligible. So check your eligibility. If you are eligible, Register right away, even if the appointment may be a long time out. And some of these sites do allow you to pre-register. The second thing you want to do is reach out to medical professionals— doctors, hospitals in your area— to see if they are administering the vaccine. And the third thing requires a little bit of digging. You might want to check on social media or local news sites to see if there are any businesses that are doing it. In some cases, grocery stores, pharmacies are offering the vaccine.

That's going to increase dramatically over the next few weeks. All right, moving on to our next COVID vaccine scam. Coming up, Robert, this is pretty cool. You're sitting at home, and all of a sudden in your inbox, look at this. COVID-19 vaccines, buy now. It's from— it looks legitimate. It's in my inbox next to all my friends' notes, right? That's what it looks like when you really focus. Is inoculate at getvaccine.com a legitimate site, right? It tells you to buy. Guys, beware of this because this is a scam. There's no way that someone's gonna be selling you vaccines. Yet fake vaccine websites are becoming more common, as you've been hearing. According to the Wall Street Journal— I'll put some numbers on this— there are more than 1,700 1,700 of these things that have cropped up just since November. Robert, you say if an email comes to a website offering you to sell you vaccine, offering you the opportunity to buy COVID vaccines, is it a scam?

So right now, Google is blocking as many as 20 million websites and emails a day, preventing you from getting access to these fake vaccines. And if you were to actually get a fake vaccine, it could kill you. So really, anytime an email comes in, be suspect, 'cause even if you click a link in one of those emails, you can download malware, malicious software, which means a virus on your computer and your identity is stolen.

And to your point, if they're willing to steal your money, they'll definitely be willing to steal your life. It doesn't matter to them. No question about it. You're just a number. Yep. Mara, there are two links everyone needs to be able to check out right now if they think a scammer has reached out to them.

Yeah, so there are two things that you really wanna look out for. The first thing is the email address that it's coming from. Those last three letters in an email address, for example, .com, give you a lot of information about whether or not it's legit. If something is coming from the U.S. government, for example, it should end in .gov, so pay attention to that.

You want the .govs, you don't want the .coms. Exactly. Or the .exe that you just talked about earlier.

Exactly. And you can put in a search engine, you can look for these email address extensions to see if it's legitimate. The other thing that you want to do is look at the URL, the actual link. Look at the website portion of that and make sure that it is a reputable, legitimate website before you click on that link. Yeah, I've been conned myself.

That they'll change one letter. Instead of US Weekly, it'll be US Weeklys. And then she'll be smart about it. They're very clever. They're very clever and nefarious. Coming up, what if you got a call from your local health department saying you had to buy your COVID vaccine today, but only today? It's a scam you won't wanna miss, cuz it's next. With the recent approval of two COVID-19 vaccines, we're seeing an uptick in vaccine scams. Scams. Today we're sharing 5 things to know about COVID vaccine scams to protect yourself and your loved ones. We got the A-Team back with us: investigative correspondent Marci Avocampo and identity theft expert Robert Siciliano. And now it's time to talk about the phony phone call. We've all been getting robocalls, but what would you do if you got a call that sounded like this?

Hello, this is Sarah calling from your local state health department. Vaccine doses are running low, but we can help. You can buy a vaccine today. Are you interested? If so, we just need to get a little information from you.

Pretty convincing, huh, guys? Just need a little information. She sounds very professional, right? Robert, is your scammy sense on high alert? Or not tingling?

Yeah, what I hate about this is that number one, lots of elderly pick up the telephone, right? And so they're using the principle of scarcity. To get people. Like, there's only so many vaccines left. But what I like about this scam is that it's easy to thwart. Basically, all you got to do is hang up. If you hang up the phone, you're not going to lose any money. You will not receive a call from anybody regarding a vaccine.

Just to reiterate, don't give any personal information. That's what they really want from you. And please don't pay anything, period, for a vaccine because it's illegal. So you can pretty much be sure what you're getting isn't legit. So what should folks do, Mar, if they think they're getting scammed, if they've been a victim?

Yeah, there are 3 government agencies that you want to report this to. The first is the Department of Justice, the second is the Department of Health and Human Services, and the third is the Federal Trade Commission. And a lot of, a lot of cases the websites have a very simple online form that you can fill out to file your complaint, and then that information will go to dozens of law enforcement sources. Make sure that you report it so it gets on record. More always great wisdom.

Thank you, Robert. Thanks for being with us. I want to point out Robert Siciliano's got a great book out, it's called Identity theft, privacy, security protection, and fraud prevention. We'll be putting all this information on a one-sheet on our website. You can print it, you can share it. Don't be conned. Be right back.