PARIS – From trafficking dodgy surgical masks to peddling counterfeit medicines and running internet scams, criminals are finding ways to profit from the coronavirus crisis, European police warn.
With billions of people under lockdown in their homes and borders shut, police chiefs say criminals are finding it hard to make money out of “traditional” activities like burglary and drug smuggling.
Instead they are preying on people’s fears of the COVID-19 pandemic to sell them substandard protective goods or trick people out of their cash online, warned Europe’s police agency Europol. (AFP)
