Thieves apparently don't care there's a pandemic going on, as the state is reporting high levels of attempted identity theft concerning COVID relief.
Lara Sutherlin is Administrator for the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection. She says a recent scam revolves around contract tracing. Health departments are calling COVID positive persons to see who they have been in contact with. Sutherlin says a legitimate call will ask health questions, but nothing about your money....
"They're never going to ask you for method of payment, or anything like that. If someone calls you and says they're a tracer and they start talking about money, you should hang up and report that to the department...."
Sutherlin says student loan scams continue. Under the CARES Act, certain student loans are put into deferment and no interest is being charged. She says students don't have to do anything regarding loans at this time...
"So anybody who calls you and say you need to fill out a form or pay a fee or get certain information to confirm to get your loan into that program is a scammer. There is nothing you have to do...."
Sutherlin says some loans don't apply to the deferment, so she encourages people to call their loan servicers and find out which loans are part of the program.
We have a link here to the state Consumer Protection Division where there's more information.
