Coronavirus COVID-19 Information and warning of scams
A librarian acts as a gateway to accessing knowledge, so we here at RCLL would like to provide some tips in accessing knowledge on the internet and assessing if that information comes from a valuable source, as well as assist in recognizing suspicious or spam emails. There are reports of scams taking advantage of the current situation with COVID-19, so we recommend checking the source of the emails you receive and assessing the sites that you visit to get information. For example, Scammers will send an email that displays as coming from a legitimate business, however, when you hover over the email address with your cursor, it shows a different email address than from the business. You can also hover over the links within the body of the email, so if it’s supposed to be an email from Bank of America, and the link in the body of the email does not show it links to Bankofamerica.com, then it is likely a scam. You can get further tips from this article from Forbes, which lists domains that are suspicious, provides examples of phishing emails, and details other factors to look for in assessing if the information you’ve received via email is legitimate or not.
In addition, here’s a list of websites for updates on COVID-19 in Riverside County:
Riverside County Public Health: https://www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus
Riverside County Disease Control: https://www.rivco-diseasecontrol.org/
City of Riverside: https://www.riversideca.gov/press/information-regarding-covid-19-coronavirus
City of Riverside’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cityofriverside/
Dr. Cameron Kaiser, Public Health Officer for Riverside County https://twitter.com/RivCoDoc
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles resource’s list, including employment and price gouging https://lafla.org/stories-events/lafla-coronavirus-response/#resources
Nationwide/World:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/index.html
World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Consumer Reports Resource Hub:https://www.consumerreports.org/coronavirus/coronavirus-covid-19-updates/
The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking project https://covidtracking.com/
Written by: Jenna Pontious, Public Services Librarian
