The Importance of Sharing Information

During significant world events like war and pandemics, peoples face multiple challenges which affect them in different ways. Such events cause suffering to people negatively affecting their physical health. Mental health is another impact of significant events in the world. People seek various coping mechanisms of survival and while some identify opportunities to survive even though they may not be legal. Some people identify opportunities where they carry out fraud activities in the name of survival. Currently, the world is going through a pandemic, Coronavirus disease. Coronavirus disease, also known as Covid-19, is an infectious disease caused by the Coronavirus (World Health Organization, 2020). The disease is spread through the transmission of droplets from an infected person when they cough, sneeze, or exhale. The preventive measures include covering once mouth when sneezing, regular washing of hands, and cleaning surfaces regularly to kill the disease-causing organisms. Social distancing has been encouraged to reduce human interaction (Ebrahim & Memish, 2020). Quarantine of infected cases is essential to avoid transmission of the virus to healthy people. Certain groups of people in the community are more susceptible, although it is vital to note that no one is immune to the disease. Older people and people with chronic conditions are more vulnerable to the disease. The disease has no cure, and healthcare providers treat the symptoms. Clinical trials are currently underway to develop potential therapeutics and vaccines to fight the disease. The condition has led to the infection of many people around the world, leaving public and healthcare systems struggling to treat and care for the sick (Landry et al., 2020). As a result of the disease, people are anxious as well as afraid of economic struggles. Many people have lost their livelihood, and as a result, the number of fraud cases will rise. Criminals are identifying potential activities that can enable them to make money out of unsuspecting victims. Governments are issuing stimulus packages to their citizens to cushion their citizens from the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic (Fox59, 2020). Con artists are calling and sending emails to people in order to acquire their personal information and use it to receive support packages from the government. The internal revenue service, as well as the federal bureau of investigations, has warned people against giving their information via telephone. This act is unfortunate as the banks have claimed that they have reduced their verification procedures due to the pandemics as they want people to transact easily from their homes or other places to reduce visits to the banks. Another avenue for fraudsters and con artists is the formation of charity organizations purporting to collect funds to help people during the pandemic. People must identify all the possible options that fraudsters can use to acquire their money. International crimes are also thriving during this period as organized criminals can quickly transfer money across borders. With governments instructing their law enforcement departments to focus on the coronavirus crisis, it will be hard for criminals in financial crimes to face justice. White-collar crimes have taken the back seat as governments work on implementing social distancing and other offenses related to countries' lockdown. One enabling factor of criminals thriving during this coronavirus pandemic is the availability of an environment for corruption. As mentioned earlier, some governments will be providing monetary support to their citizens. International organizations such as the World Bank and the international monetary fund are providing funds to governments to help them manage and fight the pandemic. Foreign aid is susceptible to misappropriation by the receiving parties, especially in corrupt countries. Countries that have had high money laundering rates such as Canada, Australia, and the United States are places where money laundering is likely to increase during this period ( Vittori, 2020) . Due to the measures put in place to combat coronaviruses such as quarantine and social distancing, banks have said they will have a hard time implementing oversight measures put in place to prevent money transfer irregularities. The measures are an effort to reduce visits to the banks by customers. Enabling the banks to implement mobile money transfers translates into reduced oversight, which is beneficial for fraudsters. Another enabling factor for a crime during this period is the reduced number of police officers working during this time and the priority cases that they have to take up. Some governments may take advantage of the public fear and do away with financial management rules related to the transfer of funds. Some countries have already eased the rules. Mexico and Hungary have eliminated terms associated with a superior auditor and prime minister given the power to rule with a decree, respectively. Prevention of illegal financial flows will ensure that financial and economic sectors don't suffer further from the devastating effects of coronavirus (Vittori, 2020). International lending organizations should develop innovative measures to track the funds and their utilization by the recipient governments. Countries should also develop and implement measures to ensure financial funds do not go against the banking rules. Illegal financial transfers promote corruption and other crimes, such as money laundering. Prevention of crimes will ensure less harm to the financial sector after coronavirus. Sharing information is vital as people are aware of what to expect during the pandemic. The health effects of the disease are clear to the majority of people. The people also understand the preventive measures and why they need to protect themselves (Holmes, Henrich, Hancock, & Lestou, 2009). Communication of the ripple effects of the covid19 pandemic is essential. Protecting people from fraudsters is necessary. This way, they are cushioned from financial losses at this challenging time. The availability of information helps to ease fear among people and prevent financial loss. The data is also essential in maintaining some level of peace, which is crucial to the mental health of people. Sharing of information helps protect potential victims by letting them know the likelihood of fraudsters taking advantage of people (Zhang & Faerman, 2007). This kind of information also informs people where they can report the information in case it happens. Sharing of information also helps safeguard financial institutions from losses that require prior planning (Ross, Crowe, Tyndall, & Petersen, 2015). Diverted funds cause losses to financial institutions, which will make it hard for them to recover after the pandemic, especially if the funds misappropriated were loans. Misappropriation further causes problems in the economy as the government tries to acquire funds to repay the loan as money has to be sourced from somewhere, meaning withdrawing some essential services or projects. There are various forms through which fraudsters can use to take advantage of people. Some call people to acquire their personal information, which they later use to receive parcels not meant for them. In other situations, people send links through which once the recipient clicks on it, the fraudster can get access to their personal information. The information is critical to implement identity theft. There are situations; some people will walk up to people's doorstep and claim they would like to help, for instance, by running errands such as doing the shopping while in real sense they are frauds. Illegal transfer of money is another form used to take advantage of people. Sometimes governments and financial institutions engage in fraudulent financial flows, which negatively impact people who were supposed to receive the money. People must understand the possible forms that fraud can take. Fraud is an international crime that can happen in any organization irrespective of the industry (Mangala & Kumari, 2015). People can identify fraudsters by being vigilant of their financial operations and activities around them. Suspicious activity should be reported to the relevant authorities to initiate investigations. Extensive reading of information online would go a long way in ensuring that people know about what is going on in the world around them. The public should ignore calls from strangers asking for private information. Fraudsters sometimes call unsuspecting people to acquire personal information. The information obtained is put to use to acquire people's money consequently. During this pandemic, the government is sending people money; when fraudsters collect personal information, they can change the postal address this way they receive money not meant for them. Upon getting such calls, people should call their banks and other financial information and verify the information. Notifying the banks will also enable them to identify the measures they can put in place to prevent possible fraud from happening. Another mechanism is walking into people's doorstep and offering to run errands for them; however, using the opportunity to gain access to people's money. One way to react to it is reporting to the relevant authorities. Relevant authorities include organizations such as the banks, law enforcement agencies such as police officers, federal bureau of investigation, among others. Being vigilant is also essential, and people should read widely on the effects of pandemics and also keep up with current affairs to know what is happening around them. Acquisition of the relevant information is essential as it will enable people to be vigilant and also know how to respond to attempts to actions of attempting to steal from them. Collaboration is key in dealing with (Banerjee et al., 2002) fraudulent financial transactions as such financial institutions need to develop and implement monetary policies that will guide the industry during harsh economic times such as those presented by war or a pandemic like covid19 as is happing now in the world. Innovative ideas will save the industry and people from corruption and fraud caused by criminals. Resources will be preserved and enable the world to recover quickly after the pandemic. Policies are essential, and they should be coupled with the availability of funds to minimize the need for people to want to engage in criminal activities to make money. The development of backup plans is inevitable to provide guidelines to financial institutions. The instructions will guide banks on protocols to curb the burden caused by global pandemics with clear guidance on what of the financial institutions control the economic burden caused by global pandemics (Candeias & Morhard, 2018).                           

References 

Banerjee, A., Bardhan, P., Basu, K., Chaudhuri, M. D., Ghatak, M., Guha, A. S., … T. (2002). Strategy for economic reform in West Bengal. Economic and Political Weekly , 38 (6). https://doi.org/10.1159/000080589 

Candeias, V., & Morhard, R. (2018). The human costs of epidemics are going down, but the economic costs are going up. Here’s why . World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/05/how-epidemics-infect-the-global-economy-and-what-to-do-about-it/ 

Ebrahim, S. H., & Memish, Z. A. (2020). COVID-19 – the role of mass gatherings. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101617 

Fox59. (2020, April 3). Federal prosecutors warn of scams amid coronavirus pandemic . Fox59. https://fox59.com/news/coronavirus-pandemic-leads-to-scam-warning-by-federal-prosecutors/ 

Holmes, B. J., Henrich, N., Hancock, S., & Lestou, V. (2009). Communicating with the public during health crises: Experts’ experiences and opinions. Journal of Risk Research . 12 (6); 793-807. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669870802648486 

Landry, M. D., Geddes, L., Moseman, A. P., Lefler, J. P., Raman, S. R., & Wijchen, J. van. (2020). Early Reflection on the Global Impact of COVID19, and Implications for Physiotherapy. Physiotherapy . xxx (2020) xxx–xxx. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2020.03.003 

Mangala, D., & Kumari, P. (2015). Corporate Fraud Prevention and Detection: Revisiting the Literature. Journal of Commerce and Accounting Research . 4(1) https://doi.org/10.21863/jcar/2015.4.1.006 

Vittori, J. (2020, April). Illicit Financial Flows Will be Easier During the Coronavirus Pandemic . Carnegie Endowment For International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/04/02/illicit-financial-flows-will-be-easier-during-coronavirus-pandemic-pub-81468 

World Health Organization. (2020). The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Situation report-36 . WHO . https://doi.org/10.3928/19382359-20200219-01 

Zhang, J., & Faerman, S. R. (2007). Distributed leadership in the development of a knowledge sharing system. European Journal of Information Systems . 16(4); 479-493. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000694