Tips for Detecting Current COVID-19 Health Scams, Plus: Sayings that Provide Humor and Wisdom

In the current environment of “instant” and abundant forms of media, scammers are taking advantage of people’s fears surrounding the Coronavirus. Scammers are setting up websites to sell bogus products and using fake emails, texts, phone calls, and social media posts as ruses to take people’s money and personal information. The emails and posts may promote “awareness and prevention tips” and fake information about cases in your neighborhood. They may be asking for donations to victims or offering advice on unproven treatments. These emails often contain malicious email attachments.

Here are some tips to help you keep the scammers at bay:

• Do not click on links from sources you do not know. It could download a virus onto your computer or device. Make sure the anti-malware and anti-virus software on your computer is up to date.
• Watch for emails claiming to be from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or experts saying that have information about the virus. For the most up-to-date information about the Coronavirus, check the official CDC site, Federal Trade Commission, various university Schools of Public Health, Washington State’s consumer protection agencies, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Ignore online offers for vaccinations. If you see ads touting prevention, treatment, or cures for the Coronavirus, ask yourself this: if there’s been a medical breakthrough, would you be hearing about it for the first time through an ad or sales pitch?
• Do your homework when it comes to donations, whether through charities or crowdfunding sites. Do not let yourself be rushed into making donations. If someone wants donations in cash, by gift card, or by wiring money, consumer protection agencies encourage you not to do it.
• Be alert to “investment opportunities.” The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is warning people about online promotions, including those on social media, claiming that the products or services of publicly-traded companies can prevent, detect, or cure the coronavirus and that the stock of these companies will dramatically increase in value as a result. Source: Coronavirus: Scammers follow the headlines | FTC Consumer Information

To conclude the 2020 year of Health Notes, after starting the year with “Friendships,” “Gratitude,” and “Laughter,” as they benefit our health, the following musings and quotes are offered. “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Let us be grateful to the people who us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

The following sayings come from a small booklet (Mother tried to tell me…and I just wouldn’t listen). Periwinkle, Inc, Ontario, Canada, dated 1982. (You never know what you have stashed away in a desk drawer until you begin reorganizing!) Enjoy these sayings!

“Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.”    “Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.”

“Hatred can be an acid that does more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than to the object on which it is poured.”    “People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.”

“Use the talents you possess…for the woods would be very silent, if no birds sang, except the best.” “We are never more discontented with others, then when we are discontented with ourselves.”

“We may not return the affection of those who like us…but we respect their good judgment.” “Cast your bread upon the waters, and it will return twofold.”

“To handle yourself use your head. To handle others, use your heart.”

“About the only thing that comes to us without effort, is old age.” “Happiness is a slice of life…. buttered! ‘If God had wanted us to be permissive, he would have given us the Ten Suggestions.”

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

“Compromise is simply changing the question to fit the answer.” “The trouble with trouble is that is starts out as fun.”

‘It doesn’t matter if you’re on the right track…. you’ll still get run over if you don’t keep moving.” “Our problem isn’t not knowing what is right….it is doing it.”

“Some minds are like concrete…. thoroughly mixed and permanently set.”

“Love is like the five loaves and two fishes…It doesn’t start to multiply until you give it away.”

“If you trust…..you don’t worry. If you worry….you don’t trust.” 

“Two can live as cheaply as one, if one doesn’t eat.” 

“Real friends are those who, when you’ve made a fool of yourself—don’t think you’ve done a permanent job.”

“To forgive and forget, is the true test of greatness.”

May you enjoy a safe and healthy new year in 2021!