Coronavirus Philadelphia: US Attorney's Office Launching Task Force To Crack Down On COVID-19 Scammers
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia is launching a task force to crack down on scammers taking advantage of people during the pandemic. The new effort relies on tips from the public.
Earlier this month, federal authorities seized a huge stockpile of medical equipment from a hoarder in Brooklyn and at a warehouse in New Jersey.
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The supplies included hundreds of thousands of masks and gloves.
Now, 43-year-old Baruch Feldheim, from Brooklyn, has been charged with making false statements.
"These scams don't respect borders between districts or states," U.S. Attorney William McSwain said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia is concerned about similar incidents happening in our area, so it has created its own coronavirus task force.
"If anybody, for example, is hawking fake tests, fake cures, fake vaccines; if there's any illegal hoarding or price gouging going on, basically, anybody trying to illegally profit off this pandemic, that's something we're aggressively prosecuting, aggressively investigating," McSwain said.
McSwain didn't want to reveal any details about those investigations but did say they're receiving information from a variety of sources, and tips from the public are crucial.
"We want to make sure that nobody is getting taking advantage of," McSwain said.
