Editorial: Contact tracing scams put all at risk
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Some people will try anything to snag a buck.
Last week, the Pennsylvania departments of Aging and Health stepped up to warn residents about coronavirus pandemic scams.
It starts with a communication about contact tracing. The scammer would like a Social Security number as part of the trace. Or a payment is needed to get the process started. One way steals cash. The other steals identity, and therefore credit. Either way, it’s a payday for the criminal and a burden for the target.
And it might be the lowest activity during a global crisis that is disproportionately ravaging the elderly and the sick.
But the worst part might be the collateral damage.
“Contact- tracing is vital in the state’s efforts to stop the spread of covid-19, and we want Pennsylvanians to be confident that, if they receive a call from a contact- tracer, the call is legitimate,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said.
Contact tracing is how we connect the breadcrumbs of the disease to turn the data dump of infection numbers and testing information into a detailed, fleshed-out picture of exactly where covid-19 is being spread in Pennsylvania, who is being infected and how.
It can help us figure out which risks are worth it and which aren’t so the government has a better idea of what steps need to be taken and what dollars should be spent. Contact tracing will help our schools, our hospitals, our prisons and jails, our courthouses and public offices, our employers, our churches, our day cares and our local businesses all make decisions about moving forward.
And that’s why it has to be something we can trust. People can’t hear “contact tracing” and think about it the way they do “timeshare opportunity” or “Nigerian prince.”
With many aspects of coronavirus response, people can get bogged down in the politics or the debate. You can have different opinions about the science or the economics, about this theory of immunity versus that statement about constitutionality.
But let’s all agree that the infighting should stop at the idea of scamming sick people and senior citizens out of hard-earned money and good names for a quick buck and putting our health and economy at further risk at the same time.