Industry Veterans Team Up to Discuss the Rapidly Changing Environment
and 'New Normal' Related to COVID-19
Industry experts discuss how retailers are coping with the changes and impacts the Coronavirus pandemic is having on the retail loss prevention industry. In each weekly LPRC CrimeScience COVID-19 Series podcast, Dr. Read Hayes covers LPRC initiatives related to the pandemic, Tom Meehan, CFI reviews risk and vulnerabilities in technology and Tony D'Onofrio discusses the 'new normal' from current events.

"We have started our new LPRC CrimeScience COVID-19 series to thoroughly discuss dynamics and evidence-based solutions during these uncertain times," said Dr. Read Hayes, research scientist at University of Florida and director of LPRC. "In addition to this podcast, the LPRC is leveraging multiple research and other data sources to support our nearly 70 major retail chains in helping maintain customer and employee confidence." Read More Here

A Message About PPE - From CIS Security
During the COVID-19 pandemic, solution providers are reaching out to their contacts and to each other to provide you with the solutions and certified Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to help enable your stores to open in a safe environment for your associates and customers.

There have been requests for information and pricing, regarding Personal Protection Equipment for the retail associates, and for other products that will facilitate for when the times comes to re-open the stores. There are a lot of manufacturers in China providing PPE. Because of this, we have chosen to use our colleagues and partners because we have confidence in them. They are honest and their reputation for quality and price is well respected.

Read the full message here from Peter Morello, President, CIS Security Solutions Inc.

RILA Presses Congress on Proposals to Assist Retailers
To help retailers reopen and rehire Americans, once health officials deem it safe to do so, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is urging Congress to consider several policy proposals that will broadly benefit the retail industry and enable retailers to bring Americans back to work.

Policy proposal details were outlined in a letter sent to Congress today.

Once health experts signal that stores are permitted to reopen the retail experience will look different. Retailers are beginning to retrofit their stores to operate in a post COVID-19 environment. Tax credits and incentives, amongst other policy changes, should be made available to retailers who invest in health and security measures for their customers and employees." rila.org
 

Coronavirus Update: April 17

US: Over 686K Cases - 35K Dead - 58K Recovered

Worldwide: Over 2.2M Cases - 150K Dead - 564K Recovered
 

Wuhan suddenly increases coronavirus death toll by 50 percent
Chinese city of Wuhan - where the global outbreak is believed to have originated - was revised on Friday, increasing by 50 percent, state media reported.

Wuhan is attributing the drastic uptick - from 2,579 to 3,869 fatalities - to insufficient admission capabilities at hospitals that were overwhelmed during the outbreak's peak in the city.

Cases in the city were also adjusted, up 325 to 50,333, accounting for over 60 percent of everybody infected in all of China.

Wuhan's revised coronavirus numbers came days after it was revealed the Chinese government waited six days before warning its citizens of the severity of Wuhan's outbreak.

China's lackluster data on the viral spread led many countries to believe that public health authorities there had stopped the spread.

If there is one thing the CCP hates it is being embarrassed. Xi Jinping, the country's president, fired at least three Hubei communist party bosses in charge at the time. It was an attempt to save face.

The U.S. intelligence services said two weeks ago that China's infection rate data was bogus. inhomelandsecurity.com nypost.com

PPE Shortage:
COVID-19 Complaints, Lawsuits Against Security Contractors Pile-Up
Complaints from contract security officers and their unions are beginning to stack up across the county causing state regulatory agencies and the U.S. Department of Labor to initiate investigations.

Security officers are considered "essential" personnel and have been working around the clock protecting closed businesses from being burglarized, keeping the peace at grocery stores and providing high viability security at numerous commercial and residential locations.

But many security officers have been complaining for weeks that they do not have the proper Personal Protective Equipment to work in some of the environments where they're face to face with hundreds of people a day. More than three dozen security officers have reported that their employers have told them that they are not required to provide PPE and if they want to wear it, they will have to buy it themselves.

During the past twenty days, sixty-one security officers working at medical facilities, retail stores and public transportation terminals, have reported that people have intentionally coughed, sneezed and spit on them, saying that they were infected with the COVID-19 virus and two New York City homeless shelter security officers who were not properly equipped with safety equipment tested positive for the virus.

At least five lawsuits against security companies by their employees have now been filed for non-payment and lack of PPE issues. At lease one lawsuit has also been filed against a security company for not having Worker's Compensation and refusing to pay the medical costs of a security officer who became infected with the COVID-19 virus.

There have been 57 confirmed security officer deaths and more than 1,100 confirmed cases of security officers with COVID-19 including 800 TSA employees, 23 court security officers and 11 school security officers. privateofficer.org



New Retail Layoffs & Furloughs

Columbia announces that U.S. retail store operations staff 'partially' furloughed
 

Reopening America
May 1st & May 15th - Big Days For Retailers
All Hands On Deck

7 U.S. states extend coronavirus shutdown to May 15th,
Trump unveils plan for return
New York and six other Northeastern states New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, on Thursday extended coronavirus stay-at-home orders to May 15, as President Donald Trump issued new federal guidelines for a cautious reopening of the economy in keeping with advice from leading public health authorities.

"We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time, but only after states record a 14-day "downward trajectory" in their coronavirus cases after each phase. " Trump told reporters at a White House briefing where the plan was unveiled.

The plan also recommends that hospitals institute a "robust testing program" that includes antibody screenings for healthcare workers before restrictions on businesses and social life are lifted.

Some states with relatively few cases could begin phase one almost immediately. "They will be able to go literally tomorrow," Trump said at the briefing.

Governors in a handful of states this week began talking about reopening their economies as early as May 1, including North Dakota, Ohio and Tennessee.

Seven Midwestern governors and three on the West Coast have announced similar pacts to the Northeast group for coordinated reopenings. reuters.com

Trump suggests U.S. states re-open economies in three phases in new guidelines
In the first phase of Trump's guidelines larger venues like restaurants and movie theaters could operate again with strict social distancing.

Non-essential travel could resume and schools could open their doors again and sporting arenas can operate under "moderate" physical distancing during phase two.

In phase three medically vulnerable people could resume public interactions.

The New York Times reported that Trump told governors of states that some could re-open their states by May 1 or earlier. He was also expected to soon announce hiring plans for tracking the disease's spread, according to the Times. reuters.com
 

Crime Across the Globe Plummets
"The longer we're in a lockdown," San Jose PD Chief said, "the more we're playing with fire."

Law Enforcement's Preparing For the Worst

The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Reducing Some Types of Crime
Since many cities are devoid of crowds, crimes of opportunity such as robbery, sexual assault, and battery are down. Because many people are remaining at home, there has also been a significant drop in residential burglaries and property theft.

A study by USA Today analyzed crime data from 53 police agencies in 24 states. The study found that police agencies have been experiencing significantly fewer calls for service and fewer reports of crime; also, they have made fewer arrests. USA Today also found substantial drops in crimes such as driving under the influence and drug cases. In some jurisdictions the decline has been as much as 92 percent.

Surge in Domestic Disturbance Calls

Domestic violence police calls for service have increased 10 percent to 30 percent as a result of widespread stay-at-home orders. Increased domestic violence crimes are to be expected when families spend substantial time together indoors and experience significant stress due to a loss of income, loss of job security, supply shortages, and uncertainty about the future.

There is a substantial risk of an increase in online crimes, too. Criminals that typically engage in street crime are likely to turn to in fraud-based internet crimes to fund their enterprises.

The coronavirus public restrictions have significantly curtailed street prostitution in different parts of the world. As a result, there is likely to be an increase in online prostitution sites and other internet sites that promote victims in the sex trade.

The scarcity of some supplies needed to increase safety has led to price gouging. As of March 17, the Attorney General of Connecticut had received 71 complaints regarding price gouging of items such as hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and toilet paper. This is consistent with past national emergencies

For law enforcement, this most unusual time is an excellent opportunity to be proactive in addressing internet-based fraud and crime. inhomelandsecurity.com

Crime drops around the world as COVID-19 keeps people inside
In Chicago, one of America's most violent cities, drug arrests have plummeted 42% in the weeks since the city shut down, compared with the same period last year. Part of that decrease, some criminal lawyers say, is that drug dealers have no choice but to wait out the economic slump.

"The feedback I'm getting is that they aren't able to move, to sell anything anywhere," said Joseph Lopez, a criminal lawyer in Chicago who represents reputed drug dealers.

A trend playing out globally as cities report stunning crime drops in the weeks since measures were put into place to slow the spread of the virus. Even among regions that have the highest levels of violence outside a war zone, fewer people are being killed and fewer robberies are taking place.

Still, law enforcement officials worry about a surge of unreported domestic violence, and what happens when restrictions lift - or go on too long.

Across Latin America, crime is down to levels unseen in decades. In Peru crime levels fell 84% last month.

In South Africa, police reported a stunning decline during their first week of lockdown measures. ap.com

Viral marketing: Counterfeits in the time of pandemic

New Europol report on who the counterfeiters are and how they are trying to profit from COVID-19

From websites selling fake COVID-19 blood screening tests taken down by several EU Member States' law enforcement authorities to the seizure of substandard facemasks originating from Brazil and the sale of chloroquine via instant messaging apps: counterfeiters have been quick to cash in on COVID-19. The outbreak of the coronavirus disease has offered an opportunity for fast cash, as criminals exploit shortages of genuine products and the anxieties of regular citizens. The profits generated by these criminals during this time of crisis are likely very substantial, as these criminals operate in complete disregard of the health and well-being of us all.

In a report published today, Europol provides an up-to-date threat picture of the activities of counterfeiters during the COVID-19 crisis. europol.europa.eu
 

Security lapse exposed Clearview AI source code

AG's Investigating - PD's Told Not to Use - Cease-&-Desist Letters

The controversial facial recognition startup allows its law enforcement users to take a picture of a person, upload it and match it against its alleged database of 3 billion images, which the company scraped from public social media profiles. And for a time, a misconfigured server exposed the company's internal files, apps and source code for anyone on the internet to find.

Since it exploded onto the scene in January after a newspaper exposé, Clearview AI quickly became one of the most elusive, secretive and reviled companies in the tech startup scene.

Clearview has been dogged by privacy concerns since it was forced out of stealth following a profile in The New York Times, but its technology has gone largely untested and the accuracy of its facial recognition tech unproven. Clearview claims it only allows law enforcement to use its technology, but reports show that the startup courted users from private businesses like Macy's, Walmart and the NBA. But this latest security lapse is likely to invite greater scrutiny of the company's security and privacy practices.

In February, Clearview admitted to customers that a list of its customers was stolen in a data breach - though, it claimed its servers were "never accessed." Clearview also left unprotected several of its cloud storage buckets containing its Android app.

Vermont's attorney general's office has already opened an investigation into the company for allegedly violating consumer protection laws, and police departments have been told to stop using Clearview, including in New Jersey and San Diego. Several tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, have already filed cease-and-desist letters with Clearview AI. techcrunch.com

Jeff Bezos calls for regular COVID-19 testing across industries - including Amazon
"Regular testing on a global scale, across all industries, would both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running."


Retail's Everyday Heroes
For grocery & pharmacy workers, the need for mental health care may outlast coronavirus pandemic

What Happens in Second Round This Fall

For grocery store and pharmacy workers across the U.S., stocking shelves and checking out customers have become anxiety-inducing tasks. Each commute and customer interaction comes with the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. And returning home means a chance of transmitting a potentially deadly illness to a spouse or family member.

Thousands of grocery and retail workers have gotten sick from Covid-19. Some have died.

Major retailers, psychologists and the nation's top grocery worker union say they anticipate a greater need for mental health services, such as therapy, as people continue to work during the pandemic and later cope with its aftermath. Anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges may linger, even as coronavirus cases level out or decline - especially for those on the front lines.

"We cannot overlook the mental health impacts this pandemic is having on all of us," said New Jersey's health commissioner Judy Persichilli, at a news conference Thursday. She said some Americans are out of work, far from those they love and anxious as they risk exposure during essential work - which creates new worries.

On a phone call Monday, grocery workers from across the country who belong to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union shared their worries of catching the coronavirus or bringing it home to their families. The workers said those fears have been exacerbated by customers who don't wear masks, especially as they see their friends and co-workers get sick.

As of Monday, 30 people who belong to the union, which represents 1.3 million workers at grocery chains, meatpacking plants and more, have died from Covid-19. About 3,000 have been directly affected by the virus, such as through infection, hospitalization or quarantine because of symptoms.

He said the needs will be greater, if there's a second round of the coronavirus in the fall or winter. cnbc.com

What Will Reopening Workplaces Look Like?

Companies' and workers' priorities have changed during the coronavirus pandemic

When U.S. mayors and governors eventually lift the social distancing orders they imposed to curb the coronavirus outbreak, reopening businesses likely won't be as simple as switching on the lights and welcoming employees back to their desks.

HR experts expect employers and employees to experience a new work world initially, and perhaps long term, rather than business as usual once the lethal pandemic abates.

Workers may return in phases and will find new face masks, handwashing stations and wellness checks.

Not only will organizations need to consider measures to ensure the health and safety of their returning workforces-phased-in returns to the workplace and physical distancing, for instance-they also may encounter greater employee demand for flexible hours, remote-work arrangements and generous paid sick leave as part of the new normal.

"I think we're walking into a completely different world with a different set of rules," said Chester Lantin, SHRM-CP, HR director at Chicago marketing agency Walker Sands.

Reopening May Start and Then Stop

Employers are starting to think about moves they might take to re-establish a regular work life, including rotating schedules, virus screening, cleaning and providing protective equipment.

Forecasters expect the outbreak and restrictions to mitigate them to persist for months or longer, with potential subsequent waves of waning and resurgence, until a vaccine or effective treatment becomes widely available.

So we could have these waves of flare-ups, controls, flare-ups and controls until we actually get a therapy or a vaccine. I think we should all be focusing on an 18-month strategy for our health care system and our economy. shrm.org

With New Guidance, OSHA Scales Back COVID-19 Reporting Requirements
New guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) relieves employers of some responsibility for investigating and recording cases of COVID-19 among employees, but businesses still must record those that are obviously work-related.

Labor attorneys said the April 10 guidance was a welcome clarification of previous instructions to record all work-related cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, on OSHA 300 logs.

Sigel said she thought OSHA's change was narrow. "They're not retracting the concept that COVID-19 is a recordable illness but acknowledging that it's been difficult for employers to make the determination. They don't want employers to have to spend resources trying affirmatively to search for the answer." shrm.org

NYC Retail Employment to Lose 100,000 Jobs

Pier 1 Imports May Shut Down 90% Of Its Stores

The RealReal cutting 10% of workforce - 235 jobs

Electronic Security Expo (ESX) 2020, scheduled for June 9-12, has been cancelled

On-Demand Webinar from Sensormatic & Loss Prevention Foundation:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Changing Everything
 

Senior LP Job Postings Removed from Website:

• VP Asset Protection - BJ's Wholesale Club - Westborough-Home Office, MA
• Vice President of Asset Protection - Casey's General Stores - Ankeny, Iowa
• Sr. Director, Enterprise Security - Coca-Cola Consolidated - Charlotte, NC
• Asset Protection Director - McLane - Temple, TX
• Dir., Security LP - Spectrum - New York, NY
• Executive Protection Manager - CVS Health - Woonsocket, RI
• Security Manager - Nike - New York, NY
 

Coming Monday:
Catch our #1 ORC Case reported in the Daily over the past five years.
See the rest of the list here.

Coronavirus Surveillance Highlights Need for Federal Privacy Law

Advocates are warning this will be one of the largest expansions of public and private surveillance in recent memory.

"Because what we're seeing in Europe is very strong privacy laws," Ms. Gray said. "It's also very clear: Companies know what they can and cannot do."

European Union regulators have issued guidance in recent weeks on how businesses should share data with health authorities and researchers, to protect individuals' privacy and comply with the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation. Recommendations include standard approaches to stripping personally identifiable information.

Health officials say such data-sharing partnerships between the public and private sectors could be key to understanding the virus's spread and gradually reopening the economy. In the highest-profile example announced last week, Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google said they would build infrastructure to allow health agency apps to trace users' exposure to infected individuals via Bluetooth. The information will remain stored on individual users' phones rather than in a centralized database.

"The absence of a federal privacy framework has left us less prepared to respond to the crisis with a coordinated, data-driven, and trusted effort," Mr. Dufault wrote. wsj.com

PWC Survey of 313 U.S. CFO's - Covid-19 Budget Impact

Plan on Not Cutting Cyber/Privacy Efforts

Finance leaders are also prioritizing what programs to protect. For example, respondents who are looking at where to lower spending do not want to cut investments in digital transformation, customer experience or cyber/privacy. Facilities and general capital expenditures on the other hand, are hard to justify now, and 82% of US finance leaders are considering containment measures in this area.

Consumer-facing companies anticipate it taking longer to get back to "business as usual" when COVID-19 ends, with 33% saying they expect it will take 6 months or more, compared to 18% across all sectors.

Meanwhile, consumer habits are evolving in response to stay-in-place mandates, with more spending moving online. That's likely to have long-lasting effects, prompting changes in business models. pwc.com

United States Considering Coronavirus 'Immunity Cards'
Post Pandemic, Technologists Pose Secure Certification for Immunity
Going digital with immunity passports could speed rollout and allow for better warnings of potential hot spots. But security and privacy issues remain.

With signs that the coronavirus pandemic is waning in several countries, world leaders have begun to consider how their economies can be reopened, with a focus on the large - and growing - group of people who have already survived infection and should be able to return to work.

Yet to do that, businesses and the government need to be able to identify and certify those who have gained immunity. Enter the concept of "immunity passports."

The promise of such immunity certificates is that people who have already had their bout with the novel coronavirus and gained immunity can go back to work because they are presumably vaccinated against reinfection. Germany plans to introduce immunity certificates for citizens who have been exposed and are now immune. China has already implemented a red-amber-green system that classifies citizens according to the risk they pose to others. And in the United States, immunity cards are being considered, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN.

While paper certificates may be an option, a digital certificate will likely be preferable. Already, China has deployed such certificates to its citizens' mobile devices. It's likely that other countries will do the same, making the infrastructure easier to roll out and maintain but raising the possibility of privacy and security issues.

"We can't argue with the fact that the Chinese model is effective -if your phone cannot say you are green, then you cannot be out - but there is zero privacy. There does not need to be a trade-off, however. You can offer all those benefits and have a privacy-first approach with a decentralized model."

"Businesses and organizations would need to ... educate their workforce on how to validate that a certificate was correct," he says. "And there would need to be a substantial educational investment to combat the inevitable phishing campaigns that'd spring up, such as fake websites to collect personally identifiable information and fake security alerts associated with these digital certificates."

All the components of the infrastructure for a digital passport exist, but creating open standards and certifying tests are both hurdles that need to be overcome, says Jasson Casey, chief technology officer for Beyond Identity, an identity provider aiming to ditch passwords. darkreading.com

Editor's Note: This could rekindle the National Identity Card effort that has failed to take hold in the U.S.

Cyber Threats Are Called Viruses For a Reason
4 Cybersecurity Lessons from the Pandemic
An epidemiologist-turned-CTO describes the parallels between the spread of a computer virus and the real-world coronavirus.

I switched from epidemiology to network security as my day job years ago, but today's pandemic reminds me of the similarities between the two fields. There are many lessons we can take from the real-world virus and apply them to security in the online world.

It may not be obvious, but the spread of information on computer networks is like disease processes. It starts at the most basic level - when you connect to the Internet, you launch what epidemiologists would call a "nearest neighbor spread" process but what network gurus call a routing protocol. One router learns that you're there, it tells its neighbors, and they tell their neighbors, in a wave that spreads out across the network - spreading your information like a disease.

It's no coincidence that some of the first major computer threats were called viruses - they spread in ways that look like biological agents, with similar strategies for infection and reproduction. If you've ever received infected email from a colleague, you were watching evolution in action: attackers figuring out that they can more effectively spread if they contact you from someone you know rather than from an unfamiliar address.

So, what can the study of epidemics teach us about online security? I see four broad lessons:

Lesson 1: Understanding Lateral Movement

In the online world, attackers find it easiest to breach low-value targets first, then spread outwards to better targets.

By remaining at home in our fight against the coronavirus, we're fighting back by blocking its lateral movement. Likewise, digital defenders need to break up patterns of lateral movement through segmentation that walls off data into distinct areas. This prevents infections from moving into new segments.

Lesson 2: Know Where Infections Are

In the fight against disease, it's increasingly clear that the difference between countries that have better or worse outcomes comes down to who can test the most. They can see where the disease really is and get ahead of it. Digital security is the same. We struggle to know where we have infections, and response teams are often scrambling to catch up with something that has already begun to spread.

For real-world diseases, we use contact tracing. If you just learned one person is a carrier, immediately track down their contacts, test them, and quarantine as necessary. The digital version of the challenge is much harder because computers communicate across a network in many different and shifting directions, comparable to having every person on earth flying country to country every day.

Lesson 3: Slow It Down - Lesson 4: Hygiene Is Critically Important darkreading.com
 

More Zoom Bombing
Hiroshima Type Zero-Day Bombing & the Cheap Stuff

You've got to ask yourself a question, is it even worth it?

Hackers Are Selling a Critical Zoom Zero-Day Exploit for $500,000

People who trade in zero-day exploits say there are two Zoom zero-days, one for Windows and one for MacOS, on the market.

Hackers are selling two critical vulnerabilities for the video conferencing software Zoom that would allow someone to hack users and spy on their calls, Motherboard has learned.

Zero-day exploits or just zero-days or 0days are unknown vulnerabilities in software or hardware that hackers can take advantage of to hack targets. Depending on what software they're in, they can be sold for thousands or even millions of dollars. vice.com

Stolen Zoom Credentials: Hackers Sell Cheap Access
One measure of the popularity of the Zoom teleconferencing software: Cybercrime forums are listing an increasing number of stolen or cracked accounts for sale.

Using these credentials, miscreants could "Zoom bomb" calls by showing up uninvited, potentially record and leak the contents of calls, as well as push malicious files to meeting participants.

The company tells Bleeping Computer that it was able to purchase about 530,000 credentials for Zoom accounts for an average of just $0.0020 each. Purchased account information included a victim's email address, password, personal meeting URL, and HostKey - a 6-digit PIN used to gain access to the host controls in a meeting, the publication reports. govinfosecurity.com

COVID-19 will change consumers' online shopping behaviour
The company's latest report, COVID-19 impact on delivery and returns, reveals that contactless delivery was widely introduced in China, setting the bar high for retailers and foodservice providers globally. E-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com's food & grocery arms introduced contactless delivery methods, as well as foodservice providers such as Meituan employing this method for takeaways with customers being informed of both the chef and delivery driver's temperature - a level of detail that has not yet been replicated in other countries. Contactless delivery has been introduced by retailers internationally, including in the UK and US, helping them to keep their online operations open.

"The impacts of COVID-19 have the potential to decrease the popularity of click & collect beyond the outbreak as more people are expected to work from home in the long term, so will be able to accept home deliveries. Additionally, when stores re-open many consumers will be reluctant to visit busy locations due to lingering concerns around their health. Consumers may switch to third-party pickup options instead, especially lockers as this fulfilment method has no contact with others, as long as shoppers are reassured about the cleanliness of the facilities.

Returns timings and methods are also being affected by COVID-19, with many consumers being unable to return items if they are self-isolating, or if the shop they usually return items to has closed. In response to this, retailers have extended their returns periods to either a set number of days (which may not be long enough to guarantee that stores will have re-opened and so will need reviewing) or a specified number of days after stores re-open. Consumers may come to expect this longer returns period, though many will not want to wait this long for a refund so this change will have little impact on long term behaviour.

Retailers need to be prepared for this influx of returns, especially after stores re-open, and ensure that they refund customers within their stated timeframes." globaldata.com

Amazon Business launches COVID-19 Supplies store
Amazon Business is going all-out to build inventory of supplies that medical professionals, first-responders, scientists and others need to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the company says.

"Teams across Amazon are urgently working across suppliers to procure inventory," Amazon.com Inc. says on its new COVID-19 Supplies section of Amazon Business. Amazon says it's seeking to build out its available inventory of such personal protective products, or PPE, as facial shields and N95 masks; ventilators, digital thermometers, exam gloves and sanitizers. digitalcommerce360.com

E-commerce boost for alcohol and fresh food during COVID-19 likely to remain

Los Angeles, CA: LAPD Organized Retail Theft Unit Detectives warning the public of Covid-19 Scams
The Los Angeles Police Department's Commercial Crimes Division, Organized Retail Theft Unit Detectives are urging the public to be aware of potential deceptions, identity thefts, and scams designed to defraud them of their stimulus money. According to the LAPD, the following information is provided to assist the public in identifying and avoiding any such criminal endeavors.

Stimulus Checks: The government issued Economic Impact Payment, commonly known as a "stimulus check", is not a check at all. It's a payment made by direct deposit, from the IRS, into an individual's checking account. No forms are required, and the Federal government won't ask payment up front to process the payment. The IRS will simply deposit the money, and they've begun this process for many Americans already. Anyone calling, or knocking on your door, regarding your stimulus check is likely an identity thief.

In-Home Covid-19 Test Kits: There are no commercially available in-home tests for COVID-19 that consumers can purchase. There are no consumer services offering "in-home testing" at this time. Please do not trust anyone offering to sell tests to individuals, or to test anyone in the privacy of their home. They could be a burglar, identity thief, or scam artist.

Cures and Vaccines: There are no consumer products that treat or cure the COVID-19 virus. There is no current vaccine for the corona virus. Anyone attempting to sell a cure, treatment, or vaccine for corona virus is attempting to scam individuals out of their money.

Calls and Emails: Be particularly aware of emails, texts and calls claiming to be from health or government officials regarding your health. These calls may be an attempt to obtain your credit or personal information. Emails may tempt consumers to click on links that install malware of various kinds on their computers.

Price Gouging: Individuals or businesses selling COVID-19 related products at exorbitant prices are committing a crime. Consumers who observe this activity should report it to the police.

Prevention: Please follow guidelines to remain at home, to wash your hands, to engage in social distancing, and remain safe. Be vigilant for anyone attempting to sell you "snake oil" cures, treatments, tests, or vaccines. Please be careful of anyone attempting to obtain your personal information, and avoid any suspicious COVID-19 email links. westsidetoday.com

Bronx, NY: Masked crooks on Gun Hill Road hold cellphone store owner at gunpoint and steal $11,000 in merchandise
NYPD reported that once inside, one of the suspects displayed a firearm and ordered that employees open a safe at the back of the store. The pair removed $11,000 worth of merchandise from the safe including 13 cellphones, a smartwatch and various phone accessories. bxtimes.com

Wasco, CA: Two cited for shoplifting at Rite Aid
Two people were cited in connection with a shoplifting incident at a Rite Aid store in Wasco on Wednesday. According to the Kern County Sheriff's Office, around 12:30 p.m., staff from the Rite Aid reported that an unknown suspect fled the store with a shopping cart full of merchandise. A short time later, Deputies located the suspect's vehicle. Eduardo Martinez and Angelica Aguilar were cited and released for shoplifting, conspiracy and looting. turnto23.com

Evanston, IL: CVS apprehends shoplifting suspect stealing nearly $600 of Nicorette Gum

Austintown, OH: Police seek suspect for theft of over $500 in merchandise from Walmart