COVID-19 related scams con Americans out of $358 million in the last 12 months

Last updated on October 21, 2026

At Rublon our goal has always been to ensure the safety and security of people’s personal information, and since launching in 2011 as the world’s first commercial passwordless log-in solution, our mission has never wavered.

However, since the emergence of COVID-19, and the beginning of the global pandemic, the number of cyber scammers and fraudsters active has been rising across the country. So, following an announcement from the FTC stating that COVID-19 related scams have conned the American people out of more than $358 million* (on average $322 per victim), we decided it was time to see how far the issue has spread, how it has been affecting the general public, and which cyber scams people needed to be most on the lookout for.

To do this we’ve compiled a list of the top pandemic cyber scams people should most look out for in 2021, and the scams which people fell victim to the most during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our research revealed that the ‘early access vaccine’ scam topped the list. This scam began after the U.S. Government granted emergency authorization for the first COVID-19 vaccines to go ahead, and entailed emails, texts, and calls from fake organisations promising unsuspecting American’s early access to a vaccine – unfortunately, this scam is still going on today.

Research from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) reports that instances of people losing money to scams started on social media have continued to increase during the pandemic. Statistics show that Americans reported $134 million in losses to social media fraud in 2019, however in the first six months of 2020 alone, citizens had already reported losses of over $117 million**.

A ‘tech support’ scam ranked in second place on the list, targeting America’s work-from-home professionals, followed by a ‘COVID-19 trial invitation’ scam, where members of the public would be invited to take part in tests relating to the virus.

The ten most common ‘pandemic cyber scams’, and a brief description of each, are:

Early access vaccine – A series of emails, texts, letters or phone calls claiming to have access to COVID-19 vaccines before official Government sources.
Tech support – Emails, texts and adverts stating that a person’s device is infected/in need of repair. The scammers will ask the owner of the device to download remote access software, allowing them to install real viruses in order to compromise one’s personal information.
COVID-19 trials – This scam either states people could be paid to take part in COVID-19 test trials, or to take part in an official antibody test – however once a person opens a dialogue with the scammers this is when the scam begins.
Phishing – A long-used tactic for gaining access to people’s personal data, phishing involves the scammer taking on the persona of a known-person, ie; your boss, nephew, or friend. Most commonly scammers will send a link acting as a trusted person, in order to encourage people to click the link – potentially downloading viruses and malicious hardware onto their device.
COVID-19 cure – This scam involves texts, emails, and fake adverts in order to get people to buy, or register interest in, a ‘Coronavirus Cure’. Sometimes people will receive a product of some kind, claiming to be a cure, while others will simply have their information/money stolen. These products are not real, and do not cure any diseases.
Fake brand shopping sites – For this scam hackers will often either create a lookalike site to one of your favorite brands, or hack into a brand’s official e-commerce site. This allows them to steal your financial information during the payment process.
Fake IRS information collection – This scam involves receiving emails from the “IRS”, asking members of the public to send through their tax information – most commonly their Electronic Filing Pin.
Catfish scam – Due to people’s lack of ability to meet up in person because of the pandemic, romance scams saw an increase of more than 50% from 2019, totalling more than $304m across the United States***. Catfish scams involve someone pretending to be someone else online in order to gain access to a person’s money or personal information.
Fake job posting scam – For this scam fake job listings will be posted online, in order to steal personal information from hopeful candidates throughout the application process. This scam is particularly efficient because when a business asks for information relating to a job role it often is given without question.
Stimulus cheque fraud – After the introduction of stimulus cheques for Americans struggling financially due to the pandemic, the stimulus cheque fraud scam was born. This scam involves members of the public receiving calls, emails and texts offering stimulus advice in order to steal people’s personal information.

Our fraud team also interrogated Google search term and keyword data to reveal which States in the U.S. were most worried about scams in the last twelve months. When looking into which States had been searching for ‘scams’ the most, we discovered that Delaware topped the list, followed by Nevada and Wyoming.

Going deeper into the search term and keyword data, we also discovered that searches for ‘trap phishing’ had risen by more than 5,000% in the United States, while the number of searches for ‘barrel phishing’ had risen by more than 2,250%. Searches for ‘report PayPal phishing’ and ‘report phishing to PayPal’ had also risen by more than 550% and 300%, respectively.

Currently 41.8% of American professionals are working remotely, and an estimated 26.7% of the American workforce continue to do so throughout 2021, and more than 36 million Americans will be working remotely by 2025****.

A global survey of fraud examiners conducted in August 2020 revealed an increase in cyber fraud risk following the emergence of the COVID-19. In May of last year, 45% of respondents stated they’d seen a ‘significant increase’ in cyber fraud risk, while nearly two thirds (60%) of respondents expected a ‘significant increase’ in cyber fraud risk over the next twelve months*****.

There can be huge benefits from remote working, however security can be jeopardised. Remote works are less likely to be covered by corporate firewalls, and it is harder for IT security teams to block potential threats. Additionally, not all employees have company-owned phones or laptops so a personal cyber scam attack could in turn affect their company. Therefore, it’s important for employees to educate themselves on common scams, but also very important for employers to take responsibility and ensure their companies and employees are protected remotely.

Rublon is a two-factor authentication system that acts as an additional security layer which protects the password-based login process to web applications. The platform’s mission is to ensure all people are able to keep their data safely protected online, without worry or stress.

Michael Wendrowski, Managing Director of Rublon, said,

“The last 12 months have been challenging for all of us, and we’ve really had to pull together to try and get through it. However the struggle we’ve all been going through seems to have only emboldened scammers more.

“Here at Rublon, we want to make sure people were able to keep their data safely online, without having to worry about scammers or intruders ever gaining access to their accounts.

“While we have seen an increase in scammer activity, we’re hopeful that the more people that are aware of the common scams, and how to spot them, we’ll see less and less of these scams impacting people’s lives every day.”

Source:

*https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2020/coronavirus.html

**https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2020/10/scams-starting-social-media-proliferate-early-2020

***https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2021/02/romance-scams-take-record-dollars-2020

****https://www.upwork.com/press/releases/economist-report-future-workforce

*****https://www.statista.com/statistics/1175574/increase-cyber-fraud-coronavirus-outbreak/