Federal prosecutors in Tampa crack down on websites selling Covid products
August 13, 2020 - The U.S. Justice Department obtained a temporary restraining order in federal court in Tampa against three people who prosecutors said were seeking to profit from the Covid-19 pandemic. The defendants, identified in a news release as Thu Phan Dinh, Tran Khanh, and Nguyen Duy Toan, are accused of operating more than 300 websites that fraudulently purported to sell products that became scarce during the pandemic, including hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes. Thousands of victims in all 50 states paid for items supposedly sold through the websites but never received the purchased products, the news release said. The defendants also allegedly listed fraudulent contact addresses and phone numbers on the websites, causing unaffiliated individuals and businesses in the United States to receive numerous complaint calls from victims who had been defrauded by the scheme. U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell issued an emergency temporary restraining order requiring the websites be disabled. All the defendants are from Vietnam, and Vietnamese authorities conducted their own investigation and arrested them, the news release said.