Beware Crooked Contact Tracers

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 26 August 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads to communities throughout the U.S., the epidemic of coronavirus-related fraud continues unabated. What to watch out for:

Bogus contact tracers. Contact tracers, who are employed by state health departments, are an important tool in controlling the spread of COVID-19. Legitimate tracers may contact you via phone, e-mail, text or in person to find out names of people you’ve been in contact with and places you’ve visited. But if someone claiming to be a contact tracer asks you for money, or requests your Social Security number or financial information, the individual is a con artist, the Federal Trade Commission says.

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Block joined Kiplinger in June 2012 from USA Today, where she was a reporter and personal finance columnist for more than 15 years. Prior to that, she worked for the Akron Beacon-Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. In 1993, she was a Knight-Bagehot fellow in economics and business journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has a BA in communications from Bethany College in Bethany, W.Va.