NPR (8/20, Appleby) reports “state officials and federal agencies warn there’s a new phone scam circulating: Some callers posing as COVID-19 contact tracers are trying to pry credit card or bank account information from unsuspecting victims.” The scammers “apparently are taking advantage of a genuine public health intervention that is crucial to stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus: contact tracing.” Actual contact tracers do not “ask for payment or seek other financial information.” NPR discusses “how genuine contact tracing works,” and provides some “signs of a fraudster.”.