Fake Covid vaccination cards are on the rise in the U.S., Europe
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6 min read . Updated: 07 Aug 2021, 10:36 PM IST Vaccine mandates have fueled an increase in demand for fraudulent certificates as sellers flourish online
MILAN: As Covid-19 vaccine mandates proliferate in the U.S. and Europe, so are swindlers selling bogus vaccination certificates.
The U.S. government has said federal workers must be vaccinated or submit to regular testing, mask requirements and social distancing. California requires state employees to be vaccinated or tested at least once a week. New York state will soon follow and New York City plans to require proof of vaccination for customers and staff at restaurants and gyms.
Employers such as Walt Disney Co., Walmart Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc. are requiring vaccination for at least some of their employees.
Proof of vaccination is required in parts of the U.S. and Europe to dine indoors, go to museums and attend large sporting events.
The spread of such rules has created a market for counterfeit certificates for the unvaccinated. In recent weeks, schemes to sell illegal proof of vaccination have multiplied on social-media sites, messaging apps such as Telegram and on the dark web, according to government investigators and cybersecurity experts.
“As a segment of the population tries to avoid the new measures, the dark net reacts to the real market and thus demand gives birth to offers," said Dmitry Galov, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Kaspersky who has been tracking the sale of fake certificates since March.
In the U.S., fake vaccination cards purportedly issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have appeared for sale on sites such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy. In May, officers arrested a bar owner in California for allegedly selling fake vaccination cards costing $20 each. The alleged perpetrator was charged with identity theft, forging government documents and falsifying medical records.
“While we do not have definitive numbers, we are seeing more of these types of schemes recently," a Justice Department spokesman said.
The trade isn’t only online. Last month, the Justice Department arrested a licensed homeopathic doctor in California for allegedly selling patients what she called Covid immunization pellets. She then provided fake CDC vaccination cards that said the patients had received the Moderna vaccine. She also provided some patients with blank cards and instructions on how to complete them fraudulently by including a specific Moderna vaccine lot number.
In the U.S., the lack of a single federal digital card has made the work of swindlers easier. The small white cards issued by the CDC are easy to forge and weren’t intended to be a main source of proof of vaccination, according to security experts.
The European Union has a digital certificate with a dedicated QR code for each person. While the 27 member countries distribute their own vaccination cards, meaning there are variations in the format and where they are accepted, they use the same technology and there is a consensus on how they should be issued and used.
Originally thought of as a means to facilitate travel between EU countries, the certificates are now being used to ensure relative safety in situations such as indoor dining. The genuine certificates attest that somebody has been vaccinated, has newly tested negative for Covid-19 or has recovered from the disease.
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Despite the more-secure format, fake versions of the EU digital certificate have multiplied. In Italy, there are about 30 social-media profiles purporting to sell fake certificates, about 500 of which have been sold in the past few months, according to Ivano Gabrielli, an Italian police commander who oversees online fraud investigations. Telegram is the main platform being used for the sale of the fake certificates, he said.
“The sellers try to get the word out by posting vague information on well-known social-media platforms, but their goal is to get you to migrate over to an encrypted messaging app," Mr. Gabrielli said.
A spokesman for Telegram said the company has shut down channels selling fake certificates when requested to do so by the Italian government.
When channels offering fake certificates do get shut down, new ones quickly appear with the same offers.
“At least by shutting down the accounts, we have momentarily stopped the phenomenon," said Eugenio Fusco, a Milan prosecutor who has investigated the fraudulent certificates.
An Italian channel on Telegram is currently advertising a digital version of a vaccine certificate for €100, the equivalent of $118, and a printed copy for €120. “Family packs" consisting of four passes can be had for €300 for digital versions and €350 for printed copies. Passes can be paid for in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and in some cases through PayPal or with Amazon gift cards.
The number of fraudulent sales increased significantly after Italy announced a digital certificate would be required for some events and travel, Mr. Gabrielli said. It is unlikely that the fake certificates would stand up to serious scrutiny unless hackers got into the national vaccination database and changed data there, a much more serious and technically challenging type of cybercrime, he said.
In France, authorities recently filed preliminary charges against six people for fraud in connection with the creation and sale of fake Covid-19 vaccination cards, according to prosecutors.
As of mid-July, French police had identified 400 buyers of fake vaccine cards and said the actual number could be three times higher, according to French press reports.
Creating or buying a fraudulent document of any sort, such as a vaccination certificate, is already punishable in France by a fine of up to €45,000 and three years in prison. A new law set to go into effect in the coming days also includes penalties specifically for presenting or offering any document based on fraudulent tests or vaccination records.
Fake certificates were first offered in Germany on the dark web, but there weren’t any buyers, said Miro Dittrich, a researcher at the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy in Germany. Once Germany added restrictions for the unvaccinated and the sellers migrated to Telegram, both supply and demand exploded, he said.
“Sellers are nimble, ready to satisfy demand that has ebbed and flowed with restrictions," said Mr. Dittrich. “One of the bitcoin wallets connected to a dealer of fake certificates had $20,000 in it. He could have been selling other stuff too like guns or drugs, we can’t be sure, but likely at least some of that came from the certificates."
Mr. Galov, of Kaspersky, warns that buyers of fake certificates might well obtain nothing useful.
“For years, people have sold counterfeit documents of all types—things like diplomas or medical certificates," said Mr. Galov. “Some of the scams we’re seeing offering codes or certificates are similar to old ones, in that they often don’t deliver anything—they just leave users without money or documents."
—Giovanni Legorano in Rome and Sam Schechner in Paris contributed to this article.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
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