In the last two weeks, IBM X-Force has seen a 14,000 percent increase in spam related to COVID-19.

Hey, welcome to Commando-on-demand Insider, your fast-paced weekly update straight from Kim's desk to your ears.

I'm Mike James, and in just a bit, Kim talks with Stephanie Carruthers.

Stephanie is part of a team called IBM X-Force that looks for ways that people are trying to scam you.

She's a white hat hacker. And with everything that's going on with the coronavirus, spam and scams have increased exponentially.

So Stephanie will tell us all about it and what's going on and how we can protect ourselves.

By the way, this is not the nationally syndicated Kim Commando show on over 400 radio stations.

The podcast version of that show is available at get kim.com.

And later on in this podcast, Kim's going to tell you how you can get into the

Commando community and listen to the Commando show podcast for free for 90 days.

Again, that's later on in this podcast.

All right.

Kim is going to talk to Stephanie Carruthers, sometimes known as Snow, in moments on Commando

On Demand Insider.

The coronavirus pandemic shocked our once booming economy.

More than 6.6 million layoffs in the past couple of weeks alone have left a lot of

Americans uncertain about the future and just desperate for financial assistance.

And that's why the CARES Act was signed into law,

which provides aid to affected businesses and workers. And then in addition to the expanded unemployment benefits, most Americans will qualify for a direct cash deposit from the federal

government to ease this hardship to the tune of $1,200 per person.

Now, if you're struggling right now, this cash payment should be coming your way to help you out

very soon. But scams and bogus checks are beating the real thing to the punch.

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