Watch out for these coronavirus scams, SEC and FTC warn
If you've seen research reports or promotions touting opportunities to invest with companies that are working to cure coronavirus, think twice before buying stock shares.

That's according to U.S. regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which all released investor alerts in the past week warning Americans about an uptick in investment scams attempting to take advantage of the coronavirus outbreak.

"Fraudsters often use the latest news developments to lure investors into scams," the SEC's office of investor education and advocacy said in a Feb. 4 email. The coronavirus has particularly dominated the news cycle in past weeks. As of Feb. 10, China's National Health Commission reported the coronavirus has killed over 1,000 people and infected more than 42,600 in China.

The SEC released its warning after it became aware of "a number of Internet promotions, including on social media, claiming that the products or services of publicly traded companies can prevent, detect or cure coronavirus, and that the stock of these companies will dramatically increase in value as a result."

But as the World Health Organization noted on Feb. 5, there are "no known effective therapeutics" available at this time to fight coronavirus, despite news reports in recent days touting breakthroughs. Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to crack down on misinformation about coronavirus prevention and treatment.

"We know scammers follow the headlines and it would not be surprising to see fraudulent pitches related to medical or bio-technology, or 'sure cures' related to the coronavirus situation," says Bob Webster, a spokesman for the North American Securities Administrators Association, an investor protection organization comprised of state regulators.