PSA: Scammers are setting up bogus stimulus payment sites to trick you out of your cash

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The stimulus checks to Americans have started flowing into bank accounts, which can mean only one thing – there’s been a similar rise in scammer activity aimed at taking away your precious cash. That’s not good, as the $2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress is meant to stimulate the U.S. economy, not scammers from all over the world.

The cybercriminals have been using all their old tricks to try and redirect your $1,200 checks. Stimulus-themed websites have been set up, and a new campaign of phishing emails have been bombarding inboxes. Yikes.

According to one cybersecurity company, Check Point, a staggering number of websites have been set up in the last month or so. 4,305 stimulus-related domains have been registered, with 56 of those actively being malicious, and another 656 are shady as hell.

Image: Check Point

In the last week alone, coronavirus-themed attacks have jumped from 14,000 a day in March to 20,000 per day. Check Point isn’t the only company keeping tabs on the scammers, with Google saying that it blocked 18 million malicious emails and 240 million spammy emails that all had coronavirus-themed angles per day. That’s a heck of a lot of emails…

To keep your hands on your stimulus money, make sure you only use the official site to check for your check. Make sure to double-check the URL of the site you go to, as it’s common for scammers to register site names that are slightly misspelled to confuse their marks.

What do you think? Have you, or anyone you know, been affected by a scam? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.