The proliferation of services or products being pushed as cures or prevention for COVID-19 have caught the eyes of the Federal government.  Since March, more than a half dozen Georgia-based companies have been warned by the Food and Drug Administration or Federal Trade Commission to stop making false claims about products related to the virus.

From April through late July, more than 900 fraudulent items from around the country, including fake test kits, cures and counterfeit PPE, along with proceeds of more than $7 million, were seized by federal agencies, according to data from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Operation Stolen Promise, an effort to protect citizens from COVID-19-related criminal activity and fraud. Georgia State University recently received funding to help track similar sales of fraudulent items on the dark web.

Not all scams involve medications or PPE. The most disturbing recent discovery has been scammers selling Social Security numbers for people to apply for unemployment benefits or small-business relief funds. One person helped others steal about $1 million in taxpayer funds, the researchers said.

Several Georgia-based businesses have been warned by federal agencies for making claims that chiropractic services, herbal treatments and vitamins can boost the immune system and ward off COVID-19.

It is common for fraudulent medical products to emerge during a pandemic. It happened in 2013 when the FDA issued warning letters to firms selling unproven medical products to prevent influenza and again in 2014 for fraudulent Ebola products. Thousands of internet domain names were registered in 2020 that the FDA considered “high risk,” and as of June, more than 90 warning letters were issued. The agency has continued to remind consumers that there is no approved cure for COVID-19.