Florida Congress Looks to Pass Law Targeting COVID-19 Scams

State Rep. Ardian Zika (R - Land O'Lakes) has put forth legislation to stop false narratives from being published regarding access to COVID-19 treatment. Zika's house bill nine establishes criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating misleading information regarding a pandemic.

"This bill sends a loud and clear message to fraudsters that the Florida house of representatives will protect Florida consumers against fraud during a pandemic," Zika said. 

The bill was embroiled in controversy on March 25, when the Senate Rules Committee heard the legislation. The measure has an identical counterpart in the Senate proposed by State Sen. Aaron Bean (R - Jacksonville). However, Sen. Bean opted to pick up the bill's House version to be heard in the committee, negating the usual process of bringing a house bill to the Senate floor for a vote before being brought to a committee.

Several senators on the committee expressed concerns regarding the process of bills being heard. State Sen. Jeff Brandis (R- St. Petersburg) argued the house bill nine was not controversial; it's how the bill got to the committee.

"This is a noncontroversial bill that would easily have got unanimous consent on the floor. The fact that we were bringing it to rules when thirty percent of the bills we heard today we probably could've done that; just taken the house bill up and moved them out, but we don't. We substitute them on the floor and send them back and pass them out. We pass the House bill. I'm just trying to figure out what doesn't smell right here because I'm concerned about that," Sen. Brandis said.

Despite the debate regarding the process, the bill passed through the committee unanimously. Senator Bean insisted the process was done to expedite the measure approval process and minimize impact to consumers. The measure is currently on the Senate's agenda for its second reading.

Florida Attorney General's (A.G.) office has experienced a sharp increase in consumer claims. Although this is not the first encounter the legal affairs department has had with a health emergency declaration, Florida Chief Deputy Attorney General John Guard says the "Zika virus impact is not in the same universe as COVID -19".

"The department of legal affairs consumer protection division has had more than 14,318 consumer contacts related to COVID-19. To put that in context, the average typical named storm directly impacting Florida causes less than 3,000 consumer contacts. In other words, COVID-19 has caused the equivalent in consumer contacts of more than four named storms directly striking the state of Florida in the last year," Guard said. 

Florida A.G.’s office has received numerous tips on scams regarding shortages of masks, gloves, and personal protective equipment since the start of the pandemic. The state’s COVID-19 death toll is over 30,000, and scams continue to prey on consumers seeking treatment. 

Websites and Flyers surfaced online, offering unique access to treatments and vaccines in exchange for money. These fraudulent advertisements also offer appointment dates. Attorney General Moody published several guides to help Florida consumers avoid falling into online traps as pandemic scams continues. 

"If we educate consumers early enough, we can avoid some of them being scammed. The department has issued numerous press releases and publications attempting to disseminate in real-time the latest information to Floridians regarding the scams the department was seeing in its complaints," Guard says.

As we draw near the summer, A.G. Ashley Moody's office suspects scams will increase as more people become eligible to get the vaccine. According to the New York Times vaccine tracker, 18% of Florida's population is vaccinated. On Monday, April 5, all Floridians aged 18 and older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The A.G.'s office advises people to contact their local health department for information regarding the vaccine to ensure accuracy and stay away from third-party registration websites. 
For more information regarding COVID -19 scams, subscribe to Attorney General Ashley Moody's newsletter, and for vaccine pre-registration, please visit myvaccine.fl.gov/.