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Contact Tracing Spoofing is Here

No good deed goes unpunished, or so the saying goes.

So we are dealing with the Covid thing.

In order to bring it under control we need to figure out who was exposed. We find a patient. Then we need to figure out who that person was around while infected.

A new ‘business’ was born. Contact tracing.

Thousands – no, probably hundreds of thousands – of people worldwide are now working to track down the people who were near other people who were infectious.

We have even turned to software to help this problem. Use cell phone location logs. Google and Apple working together – no, this is not April Fools. Software written in a hurry without much time for testing.

But then the bad guys hijack it.

Right now this is happening in England, but the model is easy to “extend”.

You get a phone call.

From someone who claims that they are a contact tracer.

They say that someone that you don’t know was infected with Covid on <some recent date> and that you may now be contagious.

Or maybe the caller will say that you are infected and the government needs information from you.

They say if you don’t cooperate, you are breaking the law and will be arrested. Charged with a crime. Whatever made up story.

They ask you for personal information. Including information about people who you have been near.

What safeguards are in place?

Uh, none.

And the problem is that the scam requires no money and no technology. Just a phone and the mind of a con man and a carnie barker.

So, for you, your staff, – BEWARE! If you get a call, be suspicious.

What a horrible way to have to deal with a horrible situation.

Credit: The Register