The Washington Post: ‘Ripe for fraud’: Coronavirus vaccination cards support burgeoning scams

Almost 130 million Americans, 18 or older, have received at least one dose of the vaccine. As the states are grappling to distribute the vaccines in an efficient and timely manner, there have been extensive maneuver made to undermine the efforts to end the pandemic. Multiple listings on eBay offer their customers an “Authentic Vaccination Record Card” priced from $8.99 to $10.99. The listings have been posted by an eBay user “asianjackson” a Chicago-based pharmacist, who has sold more than 100 blank vaccination over the past two weeks. This is just one of many examples of burgeoning scams that can be used by individuals to misrepresent their vaccination status at school and work or even worse- high-risk environments- potentially exposing others to the risk and endanger lives of many. North Carolina Attorney General, Josh Stein, joined forces with 47 colleagues in an effort to demand e-commerce platforms to crack down the scams. Unfortunately, there is currently no system that would allow businesses, schools, and other organizations to easily check the databases to see if a visitor was presenting a falsified paper card. The prevalence of fake vaccination cards has bolstered arguments for establishing a more secure digitized mechanism and possibly pushing for the development of vaccine passports. While it is hard to get a true picture of the number of people who have obtained faked vaccine cards, it is important to remain vigilant and refrain from posting pictures of vaccine cards online to protect yourself from identity theft. Read the full article here