Scammers coming out of woodwork to prey on vulnerable

Today’s economic news is grim. Nearly 40 million Americans have found themselves without employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the newly jobless, state unemployment insurance benefits are a lifeline that helps them keep the lights on and provide food for their families. Unfortunately, the combination of billions of dollars in federal stimulus money flowing to state unemployment funds and the tens of millions of new claimants has created a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity for identity thieves: unemployment benefits scams.

According to the Secret Service and media reports, organized rings of criminals are working to siphon off unemployment insurance payments, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, intended for workers who have been laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the state of Washington, for example, scammers reportedly made off with nearly $1.6 million in a single month. This scam is reportedly even affecting consumers who have not yet lost their jobs.

The recent spike in this type of scam is unfortunately not unique. When news captures the public’s attention—think major hurricanes, terrorist attacks, and economic slowdowns—scammers come out of the woodwork to take advantage of legitimate fears and concerns. In today’s coronavirus environment, there is an unprecedented opportunity for criminals to use the public’s fears about the virus and the resulting economic downturn to defraud consumers.

Since the pandemic began, NCL’s Fraud.org project has seen an uptick in complaints about a variety of scams preying on increasingly vulnerable, financially strapped, and fearful consumers.

“Scammers running phishing schemes, stimulus check fraud, and even pet adoption scams have all been working overtime to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to defraud consumers,” said John Breyault, director of NCL’s Fraud.org campaign. “We forecast these scams will continue to increase and evolve and are eager to get the word out about how Pennsylvanians can protect themselves.”

Over the last several months, NCL has devoted monthly Fraud Alerts to giving consumers the tools to spot and avoid some of the many types of scams related to COVID-19. Alerts have featured the most pernicious types of scams that are increasing due to coronavirus, ranging from job scams to increased reports of fraudulent robocall activity.

“As the coronavirus has upended daily life, robocall operators have quickly shifted to blasting out spam phone calls offering all manner of coronavirus-related products and services,” said Breyault. It’s estimated that at least one million robocalls per day are inundating Americans’ cell phones. Fraudulent robocallers are offering air duct sanitation services, work-from-home opportunities, cut-rate health insurance, and immune-system boosting nutritional supplements. Other robocalls have reportedly offered free insulin kits to diabetics, along with free coronavirus testing kits.

“At best, consumers who respond to these calls are setting themselves up to lose money for a non-existent product or service,” said Breyault. “At worst, delaying needed emergency treatments on the belief that a fake coronavirus treatment will save your life could be deadly to you and those you come into contact with.”

In May, NCL hosted a virtual fireside chat with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and a panel of consumer protection experts on the growing threat of scams linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. NCL’s Breyault and AG Shapiro discussed what they are hearing from consumers, tactics for reaching the most vulnerable populations, and the importance of collaboration for getting key messages out to consumers.

“The work [NCL] is doing to get the word out is so important,” said General Shapiro. “There will be some people who hear my voice, and some people who hear your voice. But the key is that collectively we are warning people about scams and that we’re working together to share actual information—not myths—and not propaganda by one group or the other.”

Everything’s canceled. Now what?

The COVID-19 pandemic upended the daily rhythms for hundreds of millions of consumers, seemingly overnight. Airlines cancelled more than 90 percent of their flights. Gyms and health clubs closed en masse. Tens of thousands of concerts, Broadway shows, and sporting events have been cancelled or postponed indefinitely. What do all these businesses have in common?

They all take money from consumers in advance for services (e.g., flight, concerts, yoga classes) to be provided at some point in the future. For consumers, this meant that they have hundreds or even thousands of dollars tied up for services that cannot be provided due to COVID-related lockdowns.

While many businesses have done the right thing and refunded consumers, many have not. For example, many airlines have made obtaining refunds for canceled flights difficult even though Department of Transportation regulations require prompt refunds in the event a flight is cancelled. Big ticketing companies like Ticketmaster have given ticket-holders mixed messages on whether and how they can obtain refunds. And many gyms continue to collect membership fees even though they are closed to the public.

“There is no question that businesses are struggling with unprecedented difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said John Breyault, NCL vice president of public policy, telecommunications, and fraud. “The airlines that are unable to fly still must maintain their airplanes and pay their employees. Ticketing companies facing canceled events are often at the mercy of promoters, artists, and sports leagues. But the needs of these businesses must be weighed against the needs of consumers, tens of millions of whom are newly jobless and struggling to make ends meet.”

It is for this reason that NCL has been actively pressuring airlines and ticketing companies to promptly provide consumers with full refunds for cancelled and postponed flights and live events. NCL experts have contributed to dozens of newspaper, television, and radio interviews raising awareness about this problem and communicating the outrage they are hearing daily
from consumers.

“What consumers are being asked to do, essentially, is give airlines, ticketing giants, and other businesses long-term no-interest loans with no expectation for when the service they paid for will be provided,” said Breyault. “At a time when millions of families are wondering where the next mortgage or rent payment is going to come from, we can’t let unscrupulous businesses get away with that.”

In addition to raising alarm in the press, NCL has endorsed consumer protection legislation like the Cash Refunds for Coronavirus Cancellations Act of 2020. That bill, proposed by consumer champions like Senators Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, and Elizabeth Warren, would require airlines to refund the more than $10 billion on consumers’ money they are holding on to from cancelled flight reservations. NCL is also a long-time supporter of the Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing Act of 2019 (BOSS ACT). That bill, introduced by Congressmen Bill Pascrell and Frank Pallone and Senator Blumenthal would require that any refunds provided for cancelled or postponed events include all ancillary fees paid.

With the return to a pre-COVID “normal” still far away, and new outbreaks expected in the fall, it is likely that consumers will continue to encounter difficulties receiving refunds for some time. NCL will continue to be on the front lines to make sure that consumers are not left holding the bag when big businesses cannot hold up their end of the bargain.

Advocating for emergency air transport coverage

This spring, NCL sent a letter to the CEOs of Cigna, Aetna, and UnitedHealth Group, urging them to enter into productive negotiations with air medical service providers to ensure coverage of emergency air medical transportation. The ask came as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the country, making air medical services even more essential, particularly in rural America.

“We are increasingly concerned about emergency air medical access during this crisis, and believe this life-saving care should be covered by every insurance plan,” said NCL Associate Director of Health Policy Nissa Shaffi.

“We are asking that insurers review the robustness of their coverage policies and immediately enter into network negotiations with air medical providers so that this critical service is covered, and patients are never left with a bill they cannot pay.”

At-home vision assessments no replacement for in-office visits

With COVID-19 keeping many of us at home, companies claiming to offer at-home vision tests are ramping up their marketing, despite the fact that there is no U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved at-home device that people can use to self-conduct a vision assessment, let alone a full eye examination. These devices aren’t even proven to provide an accurate vision prescription. NCL has long recommended an annual, in-person eye exam as part of consumers’ annual health and wellness routines.

“Consumers need to be wary of products that mistakenly claim that their at-home devices can provide an eye exam or a vision prescription and should instead consult their eye doctors who are available to help provide safe solutions,” said NCL Associate Director of Health Policy Nissa Shaffi.

Sorting through bogus health claims

Across the United States, people are rising to the historic health needs and challenges posed by coronavirus, with healthcare workers on the frontlines risking their lives, and businesses pivoting to manufacture much-needed medical and protective supplies.

But deep concerns about the health implications—what happens to people who contract the disease from a health and financial perspective—are top of mind for many of us. And a cynical minority has seized on the crisis to employ unscrupulous, and frankly dangerous, marketing tactics to promote bogus products claiming to protect users against the coronavirus or provide relief for those infected—as well as peddling downright phony coronavirus testing products.

“These false claims touting unproven medical benefits are nothing more than craven attempts to take advantage of fearful consumers,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg.

“Moreover, they spread misinformation among consumers anxiously seeking ways to stay safe and healthy amidst the coronavirus crisis.”

In an op-ed in The Hill published in May, Greenberg noted that a number of CBD manufacturers and stores are falsely promoting unproven medical benefits of CBD products.

A CBD store in Portland, OR, for example, was recently ordered by the office of the state’s attorney general to take down signs claiming that its products could boost immunity against COVID-19.

“False claims such as this are particularly dangerous as consumers anxiously attempt to stay safe and healthy amidst the coronavirus crisis,” said Greenberg. “The need for science-backed treatments is significant and we must ensure products are tested and regulated for safety.”

Contrary to claims being made by CBD marketers that products containing cannabidiol can help those suffering from coronavirus, recent studies have actually found potential harmful side effects of cannabis products on infected coronavirus patients. Aurelius Data cautions the public against the potential harmful side effects that can come from consuming cannabis products with Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) if a patient is infected with COVID-19. And studies have shown that many unregulated CBD products have been found to contain THC, though the labels may not disclose this.

“In these uncertain times, we urge consumers to continue to take precautions,” said Greenberg. “We urge everyone to follow CDC guidelines for COVID-19, practice safe social distancing, and at the same time avoid THC products and all untested, unregulated CBD products to help keep your family, friends, and communities safe.”

The overlooked epidemic: COVID-19 and its relationship to opioids

By NCL Health Policy intern Talia Zitner

The coronavirus pandemic isn’t the only major public health crisis plaguing America. As the country struggles to contain COVID-19, the pandemic has seen a corollary rise in incidents of opioid usage and overdose. A major disruption in the way people suffering from opioid addiction receive treatment may ultimately prove critical to understanding how the opioid epidemic is directly affected by the coronavirus.

When lawmakers passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March, opioid treatment centers were not eligible to receive any of the $50 billion in funding that was allocated for Medicare providers. As a result, these essential centers—often under-supported and understaffed—saw their workforce getting ill or leaving to care for loved ones. Additionally, job loss and illness have left those already at risk of opioid addiction more vulnerable to relapse and death.

A key problem is the patient’s ability to get a prescription for addiction-managing drugs. Many centers rightly offer only one pill a day to their patients, but as the pandemic has forced the need for physical distancing and lack of physical contact, it has become increasingly difficult for people to get their medication. Long lines and hours-long wait times dissuade patients from getting their daily dosage. Few patients qualify for more than one dose per day, and few doctors are authorized to prescribe larger amounts of opioid managing medication.

Sadly, the coronavirus pandemic has overshadowed the opioid epidemic that continues to haunt millions of Americans. During this difficult time, the government should focus on the risk of opioid abuse and overdose and put more money into treatment programs and centers. Without support, more people will succumb to opioid addiction, lack of access to treatment, and death, further burdening the health care system.

Talia is a Washington, DC native and a rising sophomore at Wesleyan University, where she is studying English. Beyond health policy, Talia’s interests are in journalism, law, and social justice.

Measures restaurants are taking during the pandemic to reopen

By Nailah John, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow

As restaurants open across America, we all want to know what the ideal measures are to keep consumers safe. A few days ago, I went to a french restaurant in Old Town, Alexandria for brunch with my family. We weren’t allowed inside, but a hostess stood at the door with the names of customers waiting to be seated. We all practiced social distancing, every customer wore masks, and every restaurant staff member wore gloves.

We were eventually seated on the patio—six-feet apart—and a mobile menu was circulated to avoid person-to-person contact. My brunch experience during COVID-19 is similar to what states around the country are requiring as restaurants reopen.

According to Eater, all 44 states have allowed restaurants to reopen in some capacity. In each state, varying degrees of social distancing measures remain in place for businesses that want to reopen.

Forbes highlights what health experts say about reopening while also maintaining a safe environment for staff and patrons, including:

  • Implement shifts for employees and stick to them. This helps to make exposure clear and limited in case a staff member test positive for COVID-19;
  • place hand sanitizer on each table, at all entrances and exits, and in bathrooms;
  • regular disinfection of high touch surfaces is needed;
  • provide disposable menus or an online menu, touchless ordering through a mobile, app, text, or phone call;
  • and require all customers and employees to wear masks while waiting to be seated and when going to the restroom.

And here are other measures that restaurant industry experts recommend:

  • Implement available screening measures for employees before they start their shift, check their temperatures. If someone has a fever, send them home.
  • Train and communicate new protocols with your employees, it’s important they are briefed on new protocols or there would be a bit of chaos.
  • Buffets and salad bars should use sneeze guards- glass or plastic barriers that shield food- and utensils should be changed and washed frequently.
  • Install plexiglass dividers between booths and hostess stands.
  • Customers should make reservations as many restaurants have stopped serving walk-in customers.
  • Avoid reusable condiments on tables or self-serve stations and instead switch to single-serve packets for items like ketchup.

Restaurants are reopening and we are all eager to head out and socialize with friends and family, but it is paramount that we all adhere to safety protocols put in place by trusted experts to continue to not risk exposure to COVID-19. Please consumers, wear your mask, wash your hands, practice six-foot social distancing, and sanitize your hands. With your efforts, we can help to flatten the curve.

It’s time for U.S. tobacco companies to protect all child tobacco workers

Reid Maki is the director of child labor advocacy at the National Consumers League and he coordinates the Child Labor Coalition.

In 2014, under pressure from advocacy groups like the Child Labor Coalition and Human Rights Watch (HRW), several tobacco companies operating in the United States announced they would only buy tobacco from growers who agree not to hire children under 16 to work in contact with tobacco plants.

The child rights and human rights groups had been pushing for a ban on all children—aged 17 and below—from harvesting tobacco because of health problems related to nicotine exposure. These negative health impacts were well-documented in Tobacco’s Hidden Children, a report from HRW published in May 2014.

“Children interviewed by Human Rights Watch in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia frequently described feeling seriously, acutely sick, while working in tobacco farming,” noted HRW. “For example, Carla P., 16, works for hire on tobacco farms in Kentucky with her parents and her younger sister. She told Human Rights Watch she got sick while pulling the
tops off tobacco plants: ‘I didn’t feel well, but I still kept working. I started throwing up. I was throwing up for like 10 minutes, just what I ate. I took a break for a few hours, and then I went back to work.’

Another child worker interviewed by HRW, Emilio R., a 16-year-old seasonal worker in eastern North Carolina, said he had headaches that sometimes lasted up to two days while working in tobacco: “With the headaches, it was hard to do anything at all. I didn’t want to move my head.”

Some children describe the flu-like symptoms of nicotine poisoning as “feeling like I was going to die.”

HRW researchers found that “many of the symptoms reported by child tobacco workers are consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, known as Green Tobacco Sickness, an occupational health risk specific to tobacco farming that occurs when workers absorb nicotine through their skin while having prolonged contact with tobacco plants.” Dizziness, headaches, nausea, and vomiting are the most common symptoms of acute nicotine poisoning. Three-quarters of the children interviewed by HRW in the report noted the onset of health symptoms when they began tobacco work, and many of those symptoms correlated with nicotine absorption.

U.S. child labor law is of no help in dealing with this problem. American law has exemptions for agriculture that allow children who are only 12 to work unlimited hours on farms as long as they are not missing school.

In 2014, the tobacco companies agreeing to protect the youngest child workers seemed like an important step forward. But six years later, we have concerns that the voluntary ban is not working.

Farmworker communities have proven particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. With schools closed for the summer and many parents sick, we fear that the number of children from desperately poor farmworker families who seek jobs on tobacco farms may increase.

Over the last six years, partner organizations in North Carolina have told us that younger children are still working in tobacco fields.

A recent health impacts study on child farmworkers in North Carolina (“Latinx child farmworkers in North Carolina: Study design and participant baseline characteristics” in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, November 28, 2018) by researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine reported data that suggests children under 16 continue to work in tobacco
fields.

In 2017, the first year Wake Forest researchers interviewed farmworker children—and three years after the tobacco companies’ voluntary age restriction, researchers interviewed 202 children and found 116 had worked tobacco in the week before the interview.

Yes, it’s just one study. But in the absence of federal and state data—which is notoriously poor when it comes to counting child farmworkers—it suggests that, in North Carolina, one of the four prime tobacco-growing states, nearly half of child tobacco workers are under 16. It confirms what we had been hearing anecdotally from farmworker groups in North Carolina: the
tobacco companies’ policy isn’t working.

Children in the United States are not allowed to perform work that has been labeled hazardous by the U.S. Department of Labor. You must be 18 to do dangerous work in all sectors except agriculture. This is an exemption that needs to end. Tobacco has not been labeled as dangerous work, even though everyone agrees that it is. That’s why the tobacco companies in
2014 said young children should not do it.

Children who are under 18 cannot buy cigarettes in a store, yet they are permitted to work 10 or 12 hour days in tobacco fields in stifling heat, breathing nicotine though the air, and absorbing it through their skin. Many children are so desperate to avoid contact with the plants that they work in black garbage backs with holes cut out for their arms and legs.

Efforts to pass federal legislation, the Children Don’t Belong on Tobacco Farms Act, could fix this problem with a total ban on child labor in U.S. tobacco. Unfortunately, versions of the bill, in both the U.S. House and Senate, are not expected to pass any time soon. Child farmworkers, often poor and Latino, are often at the end of congressional priority lists.

American tobacco companies have had six years to try a piecemeal approach that is not working. We need tobacco companies to step up and do the right thing by banning child work in tobacco.

Tips to reduce food waste during the pandemic and beyond

By Nailah John, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow

The food waste epidemic in America has increased with each generation. Food has become cheaper than ever and we throw out millions of tons of food, while 37.2 million Americans are food insecure, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The National Consumers League (NCL) has been an early leader in calling attention to this problem. In 2016, NCL and the Keystone Policy Center hosted a Food Waste Summit, which focused on Food Waste Landscape and how it impacts the consumer. The USDA estimates that we waste 30-40 percent of our food supply. In 2015, the USDA joined the U.S. Environment Protection Agency to set a goal to cut America’s food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030.

NCL helped to launch Further with Food: Center for Food Loss and Waste Solutions in 2017. NCL, along with 12 organizations, joined this online hub to exchange information and solutions towards the national goal of cutting food waste. The initiative focuses on best practices for preventing food loss and waste; providing educational materials; research results and information on existing government, business, and community.

Sadly, during the pandemic, some farmers have resorted to dumping milk and plowing crops under because schools, restaurants, and universities that usually purchase large quantities of food are closed. Dana Gunders, executive Director of ReFED- Rethink Food Waste, recently noted that “people are throwing out less food in their homes, but more food is going to waste throughout the supply chain.” Gunders was recently interviewed on NPR about COVID-19 and food waste.

Gunders offered a number of tips regarding food waste:

  • Consumers are making fewer trips to grocery stores during the pandemic, which makes it easy to adopt better practices that help reduce waste at home. Consumers are planning meals and thinking through what they want to eat and need to buy. Those who meal plan waste less food.
  • Households should do a better job storing food, which helps to reduce food waste. Putting items in correct packages, storing them properly, and freezing what you are not ready to use extends the life of many items. Fresh herbs and asparagus do great in a jar of water in the fridge, and avocados can be stored in the refrigerator once ripe. Fruit does best in a crisper drawer set to “low” or slightly cracked open.
  • “Use by” dates indicate the ideal time to consume the product, but as Dana says, “if you see the words ‘best by’ or ‘best if used by,’ those are foods you can eat well past the date as long as they look fine, taste fine, and smell fine.”

Civil Eats, a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system with a focus on sustainable agriculture, also highlights recommendations for reducing food waste:

  • Revive older food. Soak wilting veggies in ice water to re-crisp them. Un-stale bread, crackers, tortilla chips by toasting them in the oven for 1-2 minutes
  • Instead of throwing away leftovers, think about using them in a new recipe. For example, use your over-ripe bananas to make a tasty banana muffin, banana fritters, or smoothies with milk, ice, or other fruit.

The USDA recommends consumers consider donating food they can’t use to hunger relief organizations, shelters, etc. so that it can be used to feed people in need. And food that is inedible can be recycled into other products such as compost, worm castings, bioenergy, animal feed, bio plastics, and clothing.

USDA and EPA created the food recovery hierarchy (at right) to show the most effective ways to address food waste.

Food waste is always a challenge, but during Covid-19, we can employ some useful strategies. With so many Americans food insecure and people around the world facing dangerous food scarcity, it’s incumbent on all of us to treasure the food our farmers grow, honor it, and use it to feed our families.

NCL leads advocates in urging FDA to protect patient access to critical therapy for preterm birth

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

The National Consumers League and 14 leading health organizations and individual providers have collaborated in sending a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the agency considers whether to withdraw the only FDA-approved therapy that reduces the risk of preterm birth in women with a history of preterm birth.

Why did we and our fellow advocates decide to send this letter in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic? Several important reasons.

First, preventing preterm birth is always a vital cause—during or without a pandemic. The leading cause of infant death in the United States, premature birth has devastating effects on families and is very costly to our health care system. For babies who do survive, short and long-term complications can accompany preterm birth. For mothers, a history of spontaneous preterm birth is a leading risk factor for recurrent preterm birth, yet providers have only one therapeutic option – hydroxyprogesterone caproate or “17P,” in one branded and five generic forms – to prevent recurrent preterm birth for these at-risk mothers.

Taking away these options—especially in the midst of a pandemic—would be concerning for pregnant women who are at high-risk for preterm birth, including those that reduce their risk of being admitted to the hospital for early delivery.

Secondly, as recent events surrounding both COVID-19 and continued fundamental rights injustices have reminded us, a profound and systemic inequity exists in the United States where institutional racism contributes to health disparities—including preterm birth and infant mortality. COVID-19 has disproportionally impacted African American women, the same population that is most likely to experience preterm birth. The preterm birth rate among U.S. black women is 49 percent higher than the rate among all other women, according to the March of Dimes.

Thirdly, 17P is the only FDA-approved therapy that reduces the risk of preterm birth and has been used for nearly a decade. We are concerned that removing access to the only FDA-approved therapy may deepen maternal and infant health inequities that exist within the U.S.

It is also troubling that if providers cannot access FDA-approved forms of 17P, this may expose pregnant women to compounded medications, which have no labeling to provide guidance on administration, contraindications, or potential side effects.

Removing 17P products in the absence of suitable alternatives would leave patients and providers significantly disadvantaged in the fight against prematurity. While we recognize the FDA is encountering tremendous challenges in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to underscore the public health need for continued access to approved treatment options, and we trust that the agency will consider the patient impact as they evaluate this issue.

To add your voice to the letter to FDA, urging the agency to preserve patient access to the only FDA-approved therapy to reduce the risk of preterm birth, you can sign on here.