coronavirus

Pop-Up COVID Testing Sites May Be Rife for Identity Theft, Experts Say

As Covid cases continue to soar, “they're functioning on the fact that people are desperate,” one expert said

A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 test at a drive-thru testing site at Tropical Park in Miami, Florida, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.
Bloomberg

Pop-up testing sites have cropped up on street corners, in parking lots and on shopping properties across the country, but health and legal experts say many of these are unregulated and could be rife for nefarious activities like identity theft.

In the last few weeks, legislators and attorneys general in several states including Illinois, Maryland, California, Texas and Pennsylvania have said they will be investigating and introducing regulatory legislation overseeing these operations.

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Numerous illegal, unapproved and unsanitary sites have been cautioned by state officials nationwide.

Outside of St. Louis, a Covid testing site set up at a mall parking lot and was asking people to provide Social Security and passport ID numbers when registering for tests. It was shut down by police, who later urged anyone who visited the site to monitor their credit reports for fraudulent activity.

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