Scams related to the COVID-19 outbreak are sweeping the nation nearly as quickly as the illness itself. And this is no time to be wiped out financially by those seeking to profit from the pandemic.

Anyone calling you or emailing you for personal information — such as your Social Security number or bank account number — and claiming it will help release or speed up your stimulus check is up to no good.

Federal and state officials and better business bureaus are warning Americans to be wary of phone calls, texts or emails that say personal or financial information is required to receive the $1,200 federal payment included in the recent stimulus bill.

Scams related to these federal payments are just the latest in a series of claims seeking to separate people frightened by the coronavirus — which is most of us — from their money, personal information or both.

Other illegitimate communications involve online charities, products claiming to be cures or vaccinations against the virus, or even the latest information about the pandemic.

Among them, according to the FBI, are emails claiming to be from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with those perpetrating fraud using addresses that mimic the CDC’s, which is cdc.gov, not cdc.com.

These emails, the FBI warns, include links that deliver malware to your computer to steal personal information or lock your computer and demand payment. Also avoid websites and apps that claim to track COVID-19 cases worldwide. These too, the FBI says, are being used by criminals “to infect and lock devices until payment is received.”

Another tactic scammers use is what’s known as a phishing email, which asks the recipient to verify personal information to receive anything from an economic stimulus check or coronavirus cure to COVID-19 assistance or testing kits.

“Be cautious of anyone,” the FBI says, “selling products that claim to prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure COVID-19” or peddling sanitizing products or N95 respirator masks.

More information on unapproved or counterfeit personal protective equipment can be found at www.cdc.gov/​niosh. Want to report a suspected counterfeit product? Visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

Accurate and up-to-date information on COVID-19, is available at the CDC’s main website, www.cdc.gov and at the multiagency federal site www.coronavirus.gov.

The following general tips from the FBI are good reminders during this time of heightened concern and the potential vulnerability that arises from it.

• Do not open attachments or click links within emails from any sender you do not recognize.

• Do not provide personal information such as your username, password, date of birth, Social Security number, bank account number or other financial data in response to an email or robocall.

• Simply hang up on robocallers.

• Rather than clicking a link, verify the web address of legitimate websites and then manually type them into your browser.

Don’t let scammers make you a victim of their greed amid a time of fear and uncertainty. Offers of front-of-the-line service in battling the coronavirus are as they sound — too good to be true.

First Published: April 9, 2020, 9:42 a.m.