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Fake vaccination cards and COVID test results on the rise
COVID-19 scams are a booming business on the dark web as cyber crooks are offering up phony vaccine cards and negative COVID test documents, all for a price, of course.
From fake PPE, to now fraudulent COVID-19 test results and vaccination cards, cybersecurity experts say the pandemic has opened up a new black market.
"People can easily fake that they have the vaccine or they have a COVID-19 test when they have not," says Joseph Steinberg, a cybersecurity expert.
A new report from Check Point Research says advertisements for phony vaccination cards and COVID tests results have gone up 300 percent since January.
Steinberg says people are logging onto the dark web or sites like eBay for false documents. He says there is an increased demand because not everyone is eligible to be vaccinated and there is a desire to return to some level of normalcy.
"You have government and other organizations saying if you’ve been vaccinated you can do XYZ, you can hug your grandparent," says Steinberg.
Ian Marlow, the CEO of FitechGelb, says prices for a fake fraudulent vaccination card or test result can start anywhere from about $25 dollars to a couple hundred. Marlow says these documents can easily be duped and have no security features like other forms of identifications.
"The technology has to catch up to what’s going on. The legal has to catch up to what is changing to what our needs are," says Marlow.
Security experts also warn not to post pictures of your vaccination cards on social media. They say people are taking those pictures to help create fake vaccine cards and can lead to identity theft.