Fraud victimization across the lifespan: evidence on repeat victimization using perpetrator data.

Older adults are thought to be more susceptible to scams, yet understanding the relationship between chronological age and victimization is limited by underreporting. This study avoids underreporting bias by merging four longitudinal databases of Americans (N = 1.33 million) who paid money in response to mail scams over 20 years. We investigate the risk of repeat victimization and victimization by multiple scam types over the life course. Victims in their 70s and 80s are 9% more likely to experience another victimization incident than those in their 50s. Those age 18 to 29 are 24% less likely to experience another victimization incident. Relative to adults in their 50s, the odds of victimization by multiple scams are greater for those in their 60s and 70s, but lower for those 80 + . This study demonstrates the research potential in using scammers' data to understand patterns of victimization. Fraud prevention efforts should target older individuals who are at higher risk of repeat victimization and suffer greater losses as a result.

Falsificações por troca de espécies de peixes: uma revisão sistemática das espécies mais comumente substituídas / Fish mislabeling: a systematic review of the most commonly mislabeled species

O objetivo deste artigo é determinar quais são as espécies de peixes mais comumente substituídas, relatadas em revisões sobre falsificações por troca de espécies, em artigos científicos publicados entre 2002 e 2022, assim como expor quais são os fatores que levam à ocorrência de casos de falsificação, quais os danos sociais que tal prática ilegal pode gerar e em que tipo de estabelecimentos as falsificações normalmente são detectadas. Assim, por meio de uma revisão sistemática de literatura, foi verificado que as espécies de peixes mais comumente falsificadas foram Anoplopoma fimbria, Gadus morhua, Solea solea, Thunnus albacares, Scomberomorus commerson, Lates calcarifer e Rastrelliger brachysoma. As motivações por trás das falsificações intencionais foram predominantemente econômicas, tendo sido observados impactos negativos das falsificações na economia, na saúde pública e no meio ambiente. A maioria das falsificações foi encontrada no final da cadeia produtiva, em locais como varejos, restaurantes e peixarias. Dessa forma, ao saber como as falsificações acontecem e suas razões, torna-se possível saber como minimizar a sua ocorrência.

The aim of this article is to identify the most frequently mislabeled fish species, based on reports and reviews of species mislabeling-related falsifications, in scientific articles published between 2002 and 2022. It also aims to explore the factors contributing these counterfeiting incidents, the social harms associated with this illegal practice and the types of establishments where counterfeits are typically detected. Through a systematic literature review, it was verified that the most commonly mislabeled fish species were Anoplopoma fimbria, Gadus morhua, Solea solea, Thunnus albacares, Scomberomorus commerson, Lates calcarifer and Rastrelliger brachysoma. The primary motivations behind intentional counterfeiting were economic in nature, and negative impacts of counterfeiting on the economy, public health and the environment were widely recognized. Most counterfeits were found at the end of the production chain, in places such as retail stores, restaurants and fishmongers' businesses. By understanding the mechanisms and motivations behind counterfeiting, we can effectively minimize its prevalence.

Understanding medical corruption in China: a mixed-methods study.

Medical corruption is a significant obstacle to achieving health-related Sustainable Development Goals. However, the understanding of medical corruption is limited, especially in developing countries. As the largest developing country, China is also plagued by medical corruption. By employing a mixed-methods design and combining data from three resources, this study attempts to examine patterns of medical corruption in China, explore its key drivers and investigate the perceived effectiveness of recent anti-corruption interventions. Using extracted data from 3546 cases on the China Judgments Online website between 2013 and 2019, we found that bribery, embezzlement and insurance fraud accounted for 68.1%, 22.8% and 9.1% of all medical corruption cases, respectively. Bribery was the major form of medical corruption. Approximately 80% of bribe-takers were healthcare providers, and most bribe-givers were suppliers of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and consumables. Using a nationally representative household survey, we further found that the prevalence of informal payments from patients remained at a low level between 2011 and 2018. In 2018, only 0.4% of outpatients and 1.4% of inpatients reported that they had ever given 'red envelopes' to physicians in the past. Finally, we conducted interviews with 17 key informants to explore drivers of medical corruption and investigated the perceived effectiveness of recent anti-corruption interventions in China. Interview results showed that financial pressure and weak oversight were two main reasons for corrupt behaviours. Interview results also suggested that the anti-corruption campaign since 2012, the national volume-based procurement, and the special campaign against medical insurance fraud had reduced opportunities for medical corruption, implying China's positive progress in combating medical corruption. These findings hold lessons for anti-corruption interventions in China as well as other developing countries.

Bayesian inference of local government audit outcomes.

The scandals in publicly listed companies have highlighted the large losses that can result from financial statement fraud and weak corporate governance. Machine learning techniques have been applied to automatically detect financial statement fraud with great success. This work presents the first application of a Bayesian inference approach to the problem of predicting the audit outcomes of financial statements of local government entities using financial ratios. Bayesian logistic regression (BLR) with automatic relevance determination (BLR-ARD) is applied to predict audit outcomes. The benefit of using BLR-ARD, instead of BLR without ARD, is that it allows one to automatically determine which input features are the most relevant for the task at hand, which is a critical aspect to consider when designing decision support systems. This work presents the first implementation of BLR-ARD trained with Separable Shadow Hamiltonian Hybrid Monte Carlo, No-U-Turn sampler, Metropolis Adjusted Langevin Algorithm and Metropolis-Hasting algorithms. Unlike the Gibbs sampling procedure that is typically employed in sampling from ARD models, in this work we jointly sample the parameters and the hyperparameters by putting a log normal prior on the hyperparameters. The analysis also shows that the repairs and maintenance as a percentage of total assets ratio, current ratio, debt to total operating revenue, net operating surplus margin and capital cost to total operating expenditure ratio are the important features when predicting local government audit outcomes using financial ratios. These results could be of use for auditors as focusing on these ratios could potentially speed up the detection of fraudulent behaviour in municipal entities, and improve the speed and quality of the overall audit.

Analyzing the relationship between air pollution and various types of crime.

Air pollution has a severe impact on human physical and mental health. When the air quality is poor enough to cause respiratory irritation, people tend to stay home and avoid any outdoor activities. In addition, air pollution may cause mental health problems (depression and anxiety) which were associated with high crime risk. Therefore, in this study, it is hypothesized that increasing air pollution level is associated with higher indoor crime rates, but negatively associated with outdoor crime rates because it restricts people's daily outdoor activities. Three types of crimes were used for this analysis: robbery (outdoor crime), domestic violence (indoor crime), and fraud (cybercrime). The results revealed that the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model performed best with lower AIC values. In general, in the higher population areas with more severe air pollution, local authorities should allocate more resources, extra police officers, or more training programs to help them prevent domestic violence, rather than focusing on robbery.

Fraude en suplementos nutricionales para deportistas: revisión narrativa / Fraud in nutritional supplements for athletes: a narrative review

El uso de suplementos nutricionales (SN) es una práctica muy extendida tanto entre los deportistas profesionales como entre los amateurs. Su elección debe realizarse basándose en criterios de seguridad, legalidad y eficacia. Son varios los riesgos que algunos de estos productos pueden desencadenar, siendo motivo de fraude para el consumidor. A modo de ejemplo, la presencia de una sustancia legal en dosis superiores a sus recomendaciones puede ocasionar efectos secundarios indeseados; por el contrario, su presencia en cantidades inferiores a las necesarias (umbral efectivo) puede no provocar el efecto esperado o anunciado por el producto. Por ello, el objetivo de la presente revisión es describir la existencia de fraude en relación con el etiquetado nutricional y/o el contenido de los SN destinados a deportistas. Se realizó una revisión narrativa a través de Pubmed en la que 16 estudios cumplieron los criterios de inclusión. Los resultados muestran que el etiquetado nutricional difiere de la cantidad real de ingredientes. Este tipo de fraude se ha encontrado en suplementos de proteína en polvo, mezclas preentrenamiento, creatina y bebidas que contienen vitaminas y minerales, entre otros. El fraude debido a errores en el etiquetado, por omisión de sustancias presentes en el producto o por errores en el análisis o declaración de las cantidades, es alto. Esta falta de transparencia en la composición real del etiquetado puede contribuir a problemas de rendimiento deportivo y/o de salud en el deportista. Por lo tanto, es necesaria una mejora de la legislación de los SN para garantizar su seguridad, eficacia y legalidad. (AU)

The use of nutritional supplements (NSs) is a widespread practice in both professional and amateur athletes. Their choice must be based on criteria of safety, legality, and effectiveness. There are several risks that some of these products can trigger, this being a reason for fraud to the consumer. By way of example, the presence of a legal substance in doses higher than its recommendation may cause unwanted side effects; on the other hand, its presence in quantities lower than necessary (effective threshold) may not have the effect expected or announced by the product. Therefore, the objective of this review was to describe the existence of fraud in relation to nutritional labeling and/or to the content of NSs intended for athletes. A narrative review was conducted through PubMed in which 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. The results show that nutritional labeling differs from the actual amounts of ingredients. This type of fraud has been found in protein powder supplements, pre-workout mixtures, creatine, and beverages containing vitamins and minerals, among others. Fraud due to errors in the labeling by omission of substances present in the product or by errors in the analysis or declaration of quantities, is high. This lack of transparency in the actual composition of labels can contribute to sports performance and/or health problems in the athlete. Therefore, an improvement of the legislation on NS is necessary to ensure their safety, effectiveness, and legality. (AU)

[Fraud in nutritional supplements for athletes: a narrative review]. / Fraude en suplementos nutricionales para deportistas: revisión narrativa.

INTRODUCTION: The use of nutritional supplements (NSs) is a widespread practice in both professional and amateur athletes. Their choice must be based on criteria of safety, legality, and effectiveness. There are several risks that some of these products can trigger, this being a reason for fraud to the consumer. By way of example, the presence of a legal substance in doses higher than its recommendation may cause unwanted side effects; on the other hand, its presence in quantities lower than necessary (effective threshold) may not have the effect expected or announced by the product. Therefore, the objective of this review was to describe the existence of fraud in relation to nutritional labeling and/or to the content of NSs intended for athletes. A narrative review was conducted through PubMed in which 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. The results show that nutritional labeling differs from the actual amounts of ingredients. This type of fraud has been found in protein powder supplements, pre-workout mixtures, creatine, and beverages containing vitamins and minerals, among others. Fraud due to errors in the labeling by omission of substances present in the product or by errors in the analysis or declaration of quantities, is high. This lack of transparency in the actual composition of labels can contribute to sports performance and/or health problems in the athlete. Therefore, an improvement of the legislation on NS is necessary to ensure their safety, effectiveness, and legality.

INTRODUCCIÓN: El uso de suplementos nutricionales (SN) es una práctica muy extendida tanto entre los deportistas profesionales como entre los amateurs. Su elección debe realizarse basándose en criterios de seguridad, legalidad y eficacia. Son varios los riesgos que algunos de estos productos pueden desencadenar, siendo motivo de fraude para el consumidor. A modo de ejemplo, la presencia de una sustancia legal en dosis superiores a sus recomendaciones puede ocasionar efectos secundarios indeseados; por el contrario, su presencia en cantidades inferiores a las necesarias (umbral efectivo) puede no provocar el efecto esperado o anunciado por el producto. Por ello, el objetivo de la presente revisión es describir la existencia de fraude en relación con el etiquetado nutricional y/o el contenido de los SN destinados a deportistas. Se realizó una revisión narrativa a través de Pubmed en la que 16 estudios cumplieron los criterios de inclusión. Los resultados muestran que el etiquetado nutricional difiere de la cantidad real de ingredientes. Este tipo de fraude se ha encontrado en suplementos de proteína en polvo, mezclas preentrenamiento, creatina y bebidas que contienen vitaminas y minerales, entre otros. El fraude debido a errores en el etiquetado, por omisión de sustancias presentes en el producto o por errores en el análisis o declaración de las cantidades, es alto. Esta falta de transparencia en la composición real del etiquetado puede contribuir a problemas de rendimiento deportivo y/o de salud en el deportista. Por lo tanto, es necesaria una mejora de la legislación de los SN para garantizar su seguridad, eficacia y legalidad.

Medical disinformation and the unviable nature of COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen a marked rise in medical disinformation across social media. A variety of claims have garnered considerable traction, including the assertion that COVID is a hoax or deliberately manufactured, that 5G frequency radiation causes coronavirus, and that the pandemic is a ruse by big pharmaceutical companies to profiteer off a vaccine. An estimated 30% of some populations subscribe some form of COVID medico-scientific conspiracy narratives, with detrimental impacts for themselves and others. Consequently, exposing the lack of veracity of these claims is of considerable importance. Previous work has demonstrated that historical medical and scientific conspiracies are highly unlikely to be sustainable. In this article, an expanded model for a hypothetical en masse COVID conspiracy is derived. Analysis suggests that even under ideal circumstances for conspirators, commonly encountered conspiratorial claims are highly unlikely to endure, and would quickly be exposed. This work also explores the spectrum of medico-scientific acceptance, motivations behind propagation of falsehoods, and the urgent need for the medical and scientific community to anticipate and counter the emergence of falsehoods.

Identifying outlier patterns of inconsistent ambulance billing in Medicare.

OBJECTIVE: To illustrate a method that accounts for sampling variation in identifying suppliers and counties with outlying rates of a particular pattern of inconsistent billing for ambulance services to Medicare. DATA SOURCES: US Medicare claims for a 20% simple random sample of 2010-2014 fee-for-service beneficiaries. STUDY DESIGN: We identified instances in which ambulance suppliers billed Medicare for transporting a patient to a hospital, but no corresponding hospital visit appeared in billing claims. We estimated the distributions of outlier supplier and county rates of such "ghost rides" by fitting a nonparametric empirical Bayes model with flexible distributional assumptions to account for sampling variation. DATA COLLECTION: We included Basic and advanced life support ground emergency ambulance claims with a hospital destination. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: "Ghost ride" rates varied considerably across both ambulance suppliers and counties. We estimated 6.1% of suppliers and 5.0% of counties had rates that exceeded 3.6%, which was twice the national average of "ghost rides" (1.8% of all ambulance transports). CONCLUSIONS: Health care fraud and abuse are frequently asserted but can be difficult to detect. Our data-driven approach may be a useful starting point for further investigation.

Perceived Types, Causes, and Consequences of Financial Exploitation: Narratives From Older Adults.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to investigate the perception of financial exploitation and its causes and consequences by older adults who have firsthand experience of being exploited. METHOD: Thirty-one cognitively healthy older adult participants aged 50 or older were drawn from the Finance, Cognition, and Health in Elders Study. In-depth, one-on-one interviews were conducted. Interview transcripts were analyzed using an iterative, data-driven, thematic coding scheme and emergent themes were summarized. RESULTS: Categories of financial exploitation included (a) investment fraud, (b) wage theft/money owed, (c) consumer fraud, (d) imposter schemes, and (e) manipulation by a trusted person. Themes emerged around perceived causes: (a) element of trust, (b) promise of financial security, (c) lack of experience or awareness, (d) decision-making, and (e) interpersonal dynamics. Perceived consequences included negative and positive impacts around (a) finances, (b) financial/consumer behaviors (c) relationships and trust, (d) emotional impact, and (e) future outlook. DISCUSSION: These narratives provide important insights into perceived financial exploitation experiences.

Shelter in place? Depends on the place: Corruption and social distancing in American states.

We investigate the links between corruption and compliance with social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic in America. Both theory and empirical evidence point to a corrosive effect of corruption on trust/social capital which in turn determine people's behavior towards compliance with public health policies. Using data from 50 states we find that people who live in more corrupt states are less likely to comply with so called shelter in place/stay at home orders. Our results are robust to different measures of corruption.

Análise de fake news veiculadas durante a pandemia de COVID-19 no Brasil / Analysis of fake news disseminated during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil / Análisis de las noticias falsas divulgadas durante la pandemia de COVID-19 en Brasil

RESUMO Objetivo. Caracterizar as fake news sobre COVID-19 que circularam no Brasil de janeiro a junho de 2020. Métodos. As fake news registradas até 30 de junho de 2020 em dois sites (G1, da corporação Globo, e Ministério da Saúde) foram coletadas e categorizadas de acordo com o seu conteúdo. Para cada notícia enganosa, foram extraídos os seguintes dados: data de circulação, título, canal de divulgação (por exemplo, WhatsApp), formato da divulgação (por exemplo, texto, foto ou vídeo) e portal de registro. Os termos encontrados nos títulos das notícias falsas foram analisados no Google Trends para determinar se houve aumento de buscas no Google com utilização desses termos após a disseminação de uma determinada notícia enganosa. Foram também identificadas as macrorregiões brasileiras com maior porcentagem de aumento nas buscas utilizando os termos analisados. Resultados. Foram identificadas 329 fake news relacionadas à pandemia de COVID-19 nos sites estudados (253 no G1 e 76 no Ministério da Saúde). As fake news foram disseminadas principalmente através de WhatsApp e Facebook. As categorias temáticas mais frequentes foram: política (por exemplo, governantes falsificando a vacinação contra a COVID-19, com 20,1%), epidemiologia e estatística (proporção dos casos e óbitos, 19,5%) e prevenção (16,1%). Conforme o Google Trends, houve um aumento de 34,3% nas buscas que utilizavam termos presentes nas fake news. O maior aumento nas buscas ocorreu no Sudeste (45,1%) e Nordeste (27,8%). Conclusões. As fake news divulgadas durante os primeiros 6 meses da pandemia de COVID-19 no Brasil se caracterizaram por conteúdos de posicionamento político e desinformação sobre número de casos e óbitos e medidas de prevenção e de tratamento. Os principais veículos de divulgação foram o WhatsApp e o Facebook, com utilização de mensagens, imagens e vídeos, tendo maior alcance nas regiões Sudeste e Nordeste do país.

ABSTRACT Objective. To describe the characteristics of fake news about COVID-19 disseminated in Brazil from January to June 2020. Method. The fake news recorded until 30 June 2020 in two websites (Globo Corporation website G1 and Ministry of Health) were collected and categorized according to their content. From each piece of fake news, the following information was extracted: publication date, title, channel (e.g., WhatsApp), format (text, photo, video), and website in which it was recorded. Terms were selected from fake news titles for analysis in Google Trends to determine whether the number of searches using the selected terms had increased after the fake news appeared. The Brazilian regions with the highest percent increase in searches using the terms were also identified. Results. In the two websites, 329 fake news about COVID-19 were retrieved. Most fake news were spread through WhatsApp and Facebook. The most frequent thematic categories were: politics (20.1%), epidemiology and statistics (e.g., proportion of cases and deaths) (19.5%), and prevention (16.1%). According to Google Trends, the number of searches using the terms retrieved from the fake news increased 34.3% during the period studied. The largest increase was recorded in the Southeast (45.1%) and the Northeast (27.8%). Conclusions. The fake news spread during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil were characterized by political content as well as misinformation about the number of cases and deaths and about prevention measures and treatment. The main dissemination channels were WhatsApp and Facebook, with the use of messages, images, and videos, with greater reach in the Southeast and Northeast of Brazil.

RESUMEN Objetivo. Analizar algunas características de las noticias falsas sobre la COVID-19 en circulación en Brasil de enero a junio del 2020. Métodos. Se recolectaron las noticias falsas registradas hasta el 30 de junio del 2020 en dos sitios (G1, perteneciente a la Corporación Globo, y el Ministerio de Salud) y se clasificaron de acuerdo con su contenido. Se extrajeron los siguientes datos de cada noticia engañosa: fecha de circulación, título, canal (por ejemplo, WhatsApp) y formato de divulgación (texto, fotografía o video) y portal de registro. Se analizaron en Google Trends los términos encontrados en los títulos de las noticias falsas para determinar si había aumentado el número de búsquedas en Google con esos términos después de la difusión de una noticia engañosa. También se determinaron las macrorregiones brasileñas con el mayor aumento porcentual en las búsquedas hechas con los términos analizados. Resultados. Se encontraron 329 noticias falsas relacionadas con la pandemia de COVID-19 en los sitios estudiados (253 en el G1 y 76 en el Ministerio de Salud). Esas noticias se divulgaron principalmente por medio de WhatsApp y Facebook. Las categorías temáticas más frecuentes fueron política (por ejemplo, falsificación de la vacuna contra la COVID-19 por los gobernantes, 20,1%), epidemiología y estadística (proporción de casos y muertes, 19,5%) y prevención (16,1%). Según Google Trends, aumentaron un 34,3% las búsquedas en las cuales se utilizaban términos contenidos en las noticias falsas. El mayor aumento de esa clase se registró en el sudeste (45,1%) y el nordeste (27,8%) del país. Conclusiones. Las noticias falsas divulgadas durante los seis primeros meses de la pandemia de COVID-19 en Brasil se caracterizaron por contenidos de posicionamiento político y desinformación sobre el número de casos y muertes y sobre las medidas de prevención y tratamiento. Los principales medios de divulgación fueron WhatsApp y Facebook, con utilización de mensajes, imágenes y videos, y un mayor alcance en las regiones sudeste y nordeste del país.

Impact of Trump's Promotion of Unproven COVID-19 Treatments and Subsequent Internet Trends: Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with large followings can influence public opinions and behaviors, especially during a pandemic. In the early days of the pandemic, US president Donald J Trump has endorsed the use of unproven therapies. Subsequently, a death attributed to the wrongful ingestion of a chloroquine-containing compound occurred. OBJECTIVE: We investigated Donald J Trump's speeches and Twitter posts, as well as Google searches and Amazon purchases, and television airtime for mentions of hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, azithromycin, and remdesivir. METHODS: Twitter sourcing was catalogued with Factba.se, and analytics data, both past and present, were analyzed with Tweet Binder to assess average analytics data on key metrics. Donald J Trump's time spent discussing unverified treatments on the United States' 5 largest TV stations was catalogued with the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone, and his speech transcripts were obtained from White House briefings. Google searches and shopping trends were analyzed with Google Trends. Amazon purchases were assessed using Helium 10 software. RESULTS: From March 1 to April 30, 2020, Donald J Trump made 11 tweets about unproven therapies and mentioned these therapies 65 times in White House briefings, especially touting hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. These tweets had an impression reach of 300% above Donald J Trump's average. Following these tweets, at least 2% of airtime on conservative networks for treatment modalities like azithromycin and continuous mentions of such treatments were observed on stations like Fox News. Google searches and purchases increased following his first press conference on March 19, 2020, and increased again following his tweets on March 21, 2020. The same is true for medications on Amazon, with purchases for medicine substitutes, such as hydroxychloroquine, increasing by 200%. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals in positions of power can sway public purchasing, resulting in undesired effects when the individuals' claims are unverified. Public health officials must work to dissuade the use of unproven treatments for COVID-19.

COVID-19: Fear, quackery, false representations and the law.

Fear, anxiety and even paranoia can proliferate during a pandemic. Such conditions, even when subclinical, tend to be a product of personal and predispositional factors, as well as shared cultural influences, including religious, literary, film, and gaming, all of which can lead to emotional and less than rational responses. They can render people vulnerable to engage in implausible conspiracy theories about the causes of illness and governmental responses to it. They can also lead people to give credence to simplistic and unscientific misrepresentations about medications and devices which are claimed to prevent, treat or cure disease. In turn such vulnerability creates predatory opportunities for the unscrupulous. This article notes the eruption of quackery during the 1889-1892 Russian Flu and the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu and the emergence during 2020 of spurious claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies consumer protection strategies and interventions formulated during the 2020 pandemic. Using examples from the United States, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom, it argues that during a pandemic there is a need for three responses by government to the risks posed by conspiracy theories and false representations: calm, scientifically-based messaging from public health authorities; cease and desist warnings directed toward those making extravagant or inappropriate claims; and the taking of assertive and well publicised legal action against individuals and entities that make false representations in order to protect consumers rendered vulnerable by their emotional responses to the phenomenology of the pandemic.

Big Data, Natural Language Processing, and Deep Learning to Detect and Characterize Illicit COVID-19 Product Sales: Infoveillance Study on Twitter and Instagram.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is perhaps the greatest global health challenge of the last century. Accompanying this pandemic is a parallel "infodemic," including the online marketing and sale of unapproved, illegal, and counterfeit COVID-19 health products including testing kits, treatments, and other questionable "cures." Enabling the proliferation of this content is the growing ubiquity of internet-based technologies, including popular social media platforms that now have billions of global users. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to collect, analyze, identify, and enable reporting of suspected fake, counterfeit, and unapproved COVID-19-related health care products from Twitter and Instagram. METHODS: This study is conducted in two phases beginning with the collection of COVID-19-related Twitter and Instagram posts using a combination of web scraping on Instagram and filtering the public streaming Twitter application programming interface for keywords associated with suspect marketing and sale of COVID-19 products. The second phase involved data analysis using natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning to identify potential sellers that were then manually annotated for characteristics of interest. We also visualized illegal selling posts on a customized data dashboard to enable public health intelligence. RESULTS: We collected a total of 6,029,323 tweets and 204,597 Instagram posts filtered for terms associated with suspect marketing and sale of COVID-19 health products from March to April for Twitter and February to May for Instagram. After applying our NLP and deep learning approaches, we identified 1271 tweets and 596 Instagram posts associated with questionable sales of COVID-19-related products. Generally, product introduction came in two waves, with the first consisting of questionable immunity-boosting treatments and a second involving suspect testing kits. We also detected a low volume of pharmaceuticals that have not been approved for COVID-19 treatment. Other major themes detected included products offered in different languages, various claims of product credibility, completely unsubstantiated products, unapproved testing modalities, and different payment and seller contact methods. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study provide initial insight into one front of the "infodemic" fight against COVID-19 by characterizing what types of health products, selling claims, and types of sellers were active on two popular social media platforms at earlier stages of the pandemic. This cybercrime challenge is likely to continue as the pandemic progresses and more people seek access to COVID-19 testing and treatment. This data intelligence can help public health agencies, regulatory authorities, legitimate manufacturers, and technology platforms better remove and prevent this content from harming the public.

Public trust in the time of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): the case of the DR Congo.

Over the past half century, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a low-income and post-conflict country, has experienced several Ebola Virus Disease outbreaks, with different fatality rates. The DRC is currently experiencing the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Using the PEN-3 cultural model, we assessed the socio-cultural factors affecting public trust in the government and its health agencies. Results of this analysis revealed the perceptions, enablers, and nurturers that impacted public trust in the government and its health agencies among the Congolese population. Future interventions designed to address the COVID-19 in the DRC should account for these socio-cultural factors.