On Sunday, March 15, a large number of text messages were apparently sent out from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcing a nationwide quarantine due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
The National Security Council (NSC) quickly posted a tweet (embedded below) explaining that all those text messages were fake.
Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown. @CDCgov has and will continue to post the latest guidance on #COVID19. #coronavirus
— NSC (@WHNSC) March 16, 2020
It turns out that the computers at HHS were hacked on Sunday and used by the hackers to send out the fake text messages.
That means if you happened to receive one of those text messages you can safely ignore it.
And if you know of anyone else who might have received one of the fake texts it would be good to let them know that it was a fake and there is no nationwide quarantine in effect.
Luckily the hackers were apparently unable to access any of the data stored on the HHS computers. The only thing they were able to accomplish was sending the fake texts.
Bottom line: As of this point in time there is no nationwide quarantine in effect.
Of course we’re in uncharted territory in regards to this pandemic so that’s always subject to change. Therefore it would be a good idea to keep up with the latest news reports as this pandemic plays out.
Bonus tip #1: Click here to read about several other scams and hoaxes that are making the rounds right now.
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