Beware of Covid crooks knocking on the door

This picture has been used for representational purpose

This paper had carried a report about a senior citizen being robbed by a woman who posed as a vaccine worker. To encapsulate, the report stated that a woman claiming to be a healthcare worker sent to administer a vaccine shot arrived at the home of a senior citizen. The old lady was with her grandchild at the time. Though she was hesitant to take any shot, the so-called worker asked for water. While the home owner went inside to get water, the woman gained access to the home, tied the lady and grandchild at knifepoint and robbed the home. She was eventually caught, but we certainly have a lesson to learn from this sordid event.

The pandemic has been fertile ground for all kinds of crimes. There has been, like this space has highlighted before, a substantial uptick in online financial scams. Then, there has also been black marketing of oxygen, bogus medication, hoarding… the list goes on.

Watch out now, for vaccine-related crimes. Bogus claims, hoax healthcare workers professing to give vaccines, especially as door-to-door vaccination opens. This shows that scamsters evolve and respond with nefarious designs to the shifting contours of the Coronavirus battle.

Take the Nigerian scams for instance, those online hoax demands for money starting with the familiar I am stranded in a situation and need money. Just like those scamsters tailored their hideous schemes to global situations, the Iraq war, Syria civil war, even football clubs, in the same way, Corona criminals are tweaking their crimes in sync with the situation.

Currently, it is not so much about oxygen, remedesvir or tocilizumab. Now, it is about the jab or the shot. So, we will see maybe, criminals trying to make capital of the current vaccine crisis, or conundrum. Stay alert and vigilant, check all credentials, and when in doubt, shut the ‘worker' out.