---
title: "These Scammers Are Selling a Nonsense Anti-5G Gadget"
description: "Scammers are capitalizing on people's baseless fears that 5G signals cause health problems by selling a cheap USB drive and claiming it protects people."
date: "2020-05-28"
modified: "2020-05-28"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scammers-selling-nonsense-anti-5g-gadget"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "5G"
  - "scam"
  - "technology"
  - "the digest"
---

# These Scammers Are Selling a Nonsense Anti-5G Gadget

![Scammers are capitalizing on people's baseless fears that 5G signals cause health problems by selling a cheap USB drive and claiming it protects people.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/scammers-selling-nonsense-anti-5g-gadget.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## 5G Shield

Scammers are capitalizing on unfounded fears that 5G signals cause health problems — and are selling a $350 gadget they claim protects users.

The 5GBioShield, *[BBC News ](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52810220>)*[reports](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52810220>), is actually just a six-dollar, 128MB flash drive with a sticker on it. And while it seems like laughably bogus, the product has gained traction and even been recommended by the Town Council in Glastonbury, England.

## Selling Nonsense

One member of Glastonbury's 5G Advisory Committee, Toby Hall, claimed without evidence that the glorified USB drive somehow blocked 5G signals using quantum technology, *[The Verge ](<https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/28/21272952/5gbioshield-5g-usb-stick-fake-scam-dont-buy-it>)*[reports](<https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/28/21272952/5gbioshield-5g-usb-stick-fake-scam-dont-buy-it>).

Hall [wrote in a government report](<https://glastonbury.gov.uk/download/76/5g-report/5606/final-report-and-recommendations-from-glastonburys-5g-advisory-committee-print-2.pdf>) that those signals can increase suicide rates, [spread the coronavirus](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/coronavirus-conspiracy-theorists-setting-5g-towers-fire>), and make birds fall out of the sky dead. But there's no evidence whatsoever that 5G signals cause those or any other adverse health effects.

## Government Crackdown

Officials in London recently took steps to get a court order against the manufacturers of the 5GBioShield, a company called BioShield Distribution.

"We consider it to be a scam," Stephen Knight, operations director for London Trading Standards told *BBC News*. "People who are vulnerable need protection from this kind of unscrupulous trading."

**READ MORE:** [Trading Standards squad targets anti-5G USB stick](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52810220>) \[*BBC News*\]

**More on 5G:** *[Coronavirus Conspiracy Theorists Are Setting 5G Towers on Fire](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/coronavirus-conspiracy-theorists-setting-5g-towers-fire>)*

## 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>)