Don’t Click That Link! It Might Be Viral

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The emergence of the novel coronavirus has prompted a land grab of Covid-19-related website domains — some of which are likely to be legitimate, others more nefarious. For example, “corona-cure.com” was registered on Jan. 28 — and was the subject of a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on March 26.

Research for Bloomberg Opinion by Whois XML API suggests that at least 55,000 Covid-19-related websites have been registered since the start of the year — with more than 2,000 a day being registered after President Donald Trump’s televised address to the nation on March 11.

— Ben Schott is a Bloomberg Opinion visual columnist. He created the Schott’s Original Miscellany and Schott’s Almanac series, and writes for newspapers and magazines around the world.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

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