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THE outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has presented opportunities for some unscrupulous individuals to engage in fraudulent activities as well as to carry out robberies, an expert has said.

Board of Healthcare Funders managing director, Dr Katlego Mothudi, said Covid-19 scams have included supposed cures, fake testing sites and counterfeit personal protective equipment (PPE).

The Board of Healthcare Funders is a body that represents the interests of healthcare funders in the region.

Addressing an Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe stakeholders’ recent webinar on health, Dr Mothudi gave examples of how conmen had used the name of the World Health Organisation advertising that it was giving away vaccine kits, with just $4.95 required for shipping.

He said many of the schemes had been web-based but they also included door-to-door visits offering fake testing either for payment or as a way of conducting robberies.

 “The pandemic also provided an opportunity for medical aid frauds such as the submission of telehealth claims, which were accepted in South Africa in view of the Covid-19 lockdown, which made it difficult for people to visit a doctor,” he said.

Dr Mothudi said Covid-19 scams had also included medical aid frauds such fraudulent medical aid claims and use of medical aid cards by non-medical aid members. More than 100 stakeholders in the health sector attended the AHFoZ webinar, whose theme was “The Healthcare Ecosystem and Quality of Life – Covid-19 Aftermath”.

 New Ziana