"We are in South Carolina which is under a federally declared disaster area due to COVID."

Everyone in the US is under that declaration. Then, you read what Qualifies as impacted by the disaster. Did you read Pub 547 or the instructions for Form 4684:

"A qualified disaster loss is now expanded to include an individual's casualty and theft of personal-use property that is attributable to a major federal disaster that was declared before February 26, 2021, by the President under section 401 of the Stafford Act and that occurred on or after December 28, 2019, and on or before December 27, 2020, and continued no later than January 26, 2021. However, this change does not include those losses attributable to a major disaster that has been declared only by reason of COVID-19."

You seem to be describing: My client was the target of fraud during the covid disaster. Not attributable to it.