In Britain, the damage caused by crimes committed in reference to coronavirus has exceeded 2 million pounds (2.5 million dollars) this week, and 13.5 million dollars in the United States. Internet scammers do all the tricks, asking for money for non-existent cures, vaccines and ineffective disinfectants. In two states of Germany, the payment of emergency state aid had to be suspended, after fraudsters cloned official government sites for phishing.

In two German states, Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, self-employed individuals and small businesses are eligible to apply online for coronavirus-related state emergency aid, however, applications had been halted, when it was found that thieves had made a copy of the website which they were using for fraudulent activities. It was on Wednesday when police first received reports of phishing attempts from North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. The Saxon minister of economics said at the time that this could never happened in his province as they had safe internet. On Friday, however, the state s official website also had to be suspended for similar reasons. „Until the police investigation is completed, we have suspended the payment of state aids. Loans provided by the Free State of Saxony will not be affected,” the German news site Der Spiegel quoted a statement from the Saxony Development Bank (SAB) on Friday.

The number of internet frauds related to the coronavirus pandemic has also increased significantly in the UK since the introduction of the curfew. According to British police s Action Fraud, the UK s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre, the total value of frauds committed in the last two months has exceeded 2 million pounds. Fraudsters offer fake face masks and hand sanitizers online, some of them directly targeting hospital nurses in the British National Health Service (NHS) via email. Others send out threatening emails with fictitious texts demanding fines from victims for leaving their house too often in a day during the quarantine, Al Jazeera news television reported.

„Every day seems to have a new scam,” said Katherine Hart, lead officer of doorstep crime at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. There are a lot of emails containing fake news links, which actually collect users personal or business information or install malware on their computer. „People become bored, so they click on more things,” Catherine Hart said. The expert, therefore, advises everyone to take more time to check the content of the emails for their own benefit.

In the United States, by 15 April, 18,235 consumer reports had been received by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding the coronavirus pandemic. In the majority of reports, more than 10,000 cases, victims have complained about fraud, with losses in excess of 13.5 million dollars, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) reported on its website. Fraudsters mainly target elderly people and pensioners with their offers, who are less experienced in the use of the internet. They offer protective equipment, rapid tests, fake vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus. The FTC and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have sent out more than 40 warnings so far to companies selling unauthorised Covid-19-related products on their websites. A website that sold a non-existent vaccine against the virus has been shut down by authorities.