This Friday, it was announced that an attempt to defraud a federal agency in order to receive $750 million occurred in Atlanta where the man behind the scam was arrested. The man, named Christopher Parris, claimed he had the ability to receive a supply of millions of 3M masks from domestic factors even though he knew he would be incapable of performing such a task. With the supply of personal protective equipment being very low during this pandemic, such a promise is unlikely to be fulfilled. His actions of attempting to scam a federal agency were not only reckless due to the loss of money from the government though, as his COVID-19 scams would additionally "divert government time and resources and risk preventing front-line responders and consumers from obtaining the equipment they need to combat this pandemic".
To use the availability of face masks in order to perform a scam is unethical, as many are putting their lives at stake and diverting their attention from valid sources to save the lives of front-line responders. If the scam was successful and such money was spent many could suffer and experience the impact of this significant amount of money loss by lacking protection when attempting to save the lives of those already infected. In result, Parris was sentenced to 20 years to punish him for his unethical actions that were both dangerous and morally wrong.
This crime is especially wrong in the time of Coronavirus because the masks are vital to health care workers' safety. I think a crime like this should have additional punishments because we are in a time of crisis.
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