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COVID-19

Beware of Scam COVID Test Companies that Are Now in Nebraska

Flyer distributed at Gateway Mall in Lincoln.

Representatives from a company called Nationwide Covid Testing have been distributing flyers in Nebraska advertising free Covid tests that they will administer at your home by appointment. Some of the flyers were distributed to Lincoln residents who were waiting in the very long line–by some reports up to five hours–for drive-through testing at Gateway Mall. It may seem like an offer too good to refuse when faced with our unconscionably terrible testing location, but people should be aware that this company is likely a scam.

The Lincoln-Lancaster Health Department told Seeing Red Nebraska that they are not working with this company.

Nationwide Covid Testing’s web site showed a greater Chicago area location as of January 10, 2022. However, on January 11 the company’s name on the web site had changed to “Coronia” and offered the misspelled name and address of a tech startup in Melbourne, Australia. The web site–which was first registered last month–is laden with pre-loaded nonsense text, stock photographs, fake contact information, and typos.

The company Nationwide Covid Testing is registered in Chicago to a man named Syed M. Ali, and its address is the same address as Damascus Falafel. As of January 10, the web site claimed to be sending the tests to a company called Omni Laboratory Services, which is supposedly headquartered at an address that is actually home to a few apartments and a travel agency. The man whose name Omni Laboratory Services is registered to, Azzeddine Zairi, has been involved in multiple alarming criminal cases in Illinois, including charges of “mob action” (yikes), retail theft, theft by deception, and forgery.

The supposed address of Omni Laboratory Services, which Nationwide Covid Testing claimed was processing the covid tests.

We have heard second-hand reports that if you arrange an appointment with Nationwide Covid Testing, someone will indeed come to your home, swab you, and later email you test results. However, you have little reason to trust these results and every reason to believe that you just handed your personal information (and DNA!) over to scammers.

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