---
title: "Scammers Dressed as Doctors Set Up Fake COVID Testing Sites"
description: "Scammers are capitalizing on coronavirus pandemic by setting up fake testing sites to steal identities or hoarding crucial medical supplies."
date: "2020-04-06"
modified: "2020-04-06"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/scammers-dressed-doctors-fake-covid-testing-sites"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "health"
---

# Scammers Dressed as Doctors Set Up Fake COVID Testing Sites

![Scammers are capitalizing on coronavirus pandemic by setting up fake testing sites to steal identities or hoarding crucial medical supplies.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/scammers-fake-coronavirus-testing-sites.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Images via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

Across the country, scammers are developing new schemes to [capitalize on the panic](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/doctor-warning-sky-is-falling-nyt-coronavirus>) surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

Some are setting up entirely-bogus testing sites, and others are hoarding medical supplies and selling them at an obscene markup, [according to *The New York Times*](<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/us/politics/coronavirus-scams-fraud-price-gouging.html>).

"We are seeing fraud across the board, everything from low-tech to very sophisticated schemes," G. Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told the *NYT*.

At one site in Louisville, Kentucky, [scammers dressed as doctors](<https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/03/coronavirus-fraud-fake-tests-bogus-cures-and-vaccines-take-root/5112827002/>) were offering fake coronavirus tests out of a convenience store parking lot in exchange for $240. They were also collecting credit card information and people's social security numbers, equipping them to steal their victims' identities.

Local authorities told the *NYT* that 100 people fell prey to the scheme before the scammers fled.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported a major surge in reports of complaints related to the pandemic, whether they were for price gouging or other elaborate schemes. As of last week, the FTC received [nearly 8,000 complaints](<https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2020/03/ftc-data-shows-jump-coronavirus-related-complaints-consumers>) from consumers since the year began.

"Scams follow the headlines, and that's certainly the case with this," FTC consumer protection lawyer Monica Vaca told the *NYT*.

As federal governments track down more egregious cases, like those who stockpiled supplies in a warehouse and sold them to doctors at 700 percent of their value, more and more scams keep popping up.

As Terwilliger told the *NYT*, "it just allows the fraudsters to have their buffet, as it were, to prey upon vulnerable people."

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)