The Better Business Bureau has a warning about a scam involving contact tracing.

A warning from the Florida Attorney General about answering COVID-19 contact tracing calls.

Specifically, scammers are pretending to be doing contact tracing in order to get your personal information.

You've heard me talk a lot about contact tracing on this podcast.

It is an important part of our effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Here's what happens.

Tracers text, email, or call people who have recently tested positive for the virus

and ask them for information about anyone they've spent time with recently.

From there, contact tracers reach out to those people who might have been infected

and ask them to quarantine themselves to prevent future spread.

It is bread and butter public health.

But while contact tracing is essential, it's also become a new opportunity for scammers

who are seeking out sensitive and personal information.

As we have learned, these scams can be very sophisticated.

There have been reports of text messages that mimic the language of health departments

and phone numbers on caller ID that are disguised to appear

as if they are a legitimate contact tracing division.

So what do we do?

How can we work with the real contact tracers without giving sensitive information to the scammers?

Today I'm going to walk you through what we know about the existing scams

and what you can do to protect yourself, your friends, and your family.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent.

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