Two weeks into Britain’s lockdown, the phone rang. On the other end, a recorded voice offered a free coronavirus testing kit, delivered overnight. Press 1.
That call was a lie. It was spam. It was fraud. And it was just one of thousands.
By late March 2020, the pandemic had already shut down swaths of the global economy. People were scared. They were stuck at home. They needed masks, hand sanitizer, tests. Criminals noticed.
On March 28, international law enforcement agencies went public with a warning. Fraud was exploding. In the UK alone, the National Fraud & Cybercrime Reporting Centre recorded a 400% jump in coronavirus-related scams during March. The majority were simple: online shopping fraud. Consumers ordered protective equipment from fake e-commerce sites or social media ads. They paid. The goods never came.
Phishing emails were the second wave. They tricked people into handing over financial details and personal information. The fraudsters did not stop there. They ran lender loan scams, mandate fraud, computer software fraud, investment and pension fraud. Anyone anxious about health or money was a target.
The UK’s Security Minister, James Brokenshire, called it reprehensible. “To take advantage of vulnerable people at this difficult time is particularly reprehensible,” he said. He promised the government would work with the National Crime Agency and all law enforcement partners to protect the public.
Across the Atlantic, the Federal Communications Commission was fighting a similar battle. It ramped up anti-fraud campaigns. It distributed examples of spam calls making the rounds. One recorded message promised a free testing kit. Another told listeners to press 1 to protect their loved ones. None of it was real.
This was not a new problem. Scams are as old as commerce. But the pandemic gave fraudsters a new script. Fear of illness. Desperation for supplies. Isolation. Lockdowns meant more people were online, more people were anxious, more people were willing to trust a stranger’s voice on the phone or a link in an email.
The scale was what shocked authorities. A 400% increase is not a blip. It is a surge. It meant thousands of victims in a single month. It meant criminals had adapted faster than many expected.
Why did it matter? Because the pandemic was not going away quickly. Lockdowns would stretch into weeks, then months. The economic pain would deepen. The same conditions that fueled the March surge — fear, isolation, financial stress — would persist. Fraud would not stop.
Authorities knew they had to act fast. Public warnings. Law enforcement coordination. Takedowns of fake sites. But the fraudsters were nimble. They set up new sites as fast as old ones were shut down. They changed phone numbers. They rewrote phishing emails.
The victims were ordinary people. A retiree ordering masks. A small business owner trying to buy sanitizer. Someone who just wanted a test to know if they were safe. They were not careless. They were desperate.
Brokenshire’s condemnation was blunt. But condemnation alone would not stop the calls. The recorded voices would keep playing. The fake ads would keep running. The pandemic had opened a door, and criminals were walking through it.
The question was how long law enforcement could keep up.
