No truth to report about robbers posing as coronavirus testers

Slowly, testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is becoming more widely available in the United States. But that doesn’t mean medical professionals are offering curbside service, nor should you believe this rumor about robbers pretending to in Colorado Springs. 

"WARNING," reads a March 17 Facebook post. "People are going door to door in Colorado Springs stating they are COVID testing so they can rob people!!!!"

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

We called Lt. Jim Sokolik, a public information officer for the Colorado Springs Police Department, who told us they’re not aware of any such scam. 

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As of about 6 p.m. on March 18, he said, neither the robbery nor property crime units had investigated any such incident or received any reports about people pretending to offer COVID-19 tests. The department’s dispatch had not fielded any calls along those lines. 

Often, residents will call police if people come to their doors selling, say, magazines, Sokolik said — they want to make sure they’re legitimate. But the department hasn’t received even those kinds of reports lately. 

While online coronavirus scams abound, we found no news coverage of robbers like the Facebook post describes in Colorado. 

We rate this post False.