The California Union That Claimed to Have 39 Million Medical Masks Was Actually Duped by Foreign Scammers

The Service Employees International Union in California announced in late March that it had discovered an untapped store of 39 million N95 medical masks. The union’s president claimed in a town hall broadcast that the organization had purchased the masks and that they would be arriving soon. Hospitals, having searched high and low for the protective gear, lined up to buy millions of them from the union. Unbeknownst to them and the union, however, was that no such masks existed and the whole thing was a scheme masterminded by scammers overseas, the Los Angeles Times reports. The union was lured in after an unnamed Pittsburgh businessman, apparently trying to help in the search for masks, connected over WhatsApp with a purported broker in Australia and and supplier in Kuwait. The con was discovered when the FBI attempted to seize the masks for FEMA. No money was exchanged in the ruse, according to U.S. Atty. Scott Brady of the Western District of Pennsylvania. A spokesman for the SEIU told the Times he “was trying to save the lives of healthcare workers and patients” and that it’s leaders “were proud of having made that attempt.”