FBI Issues Warning Against Fake COVID-19 Vaccination Cards
Now that COVID-19 vaccines are widely available in the United States, fake vaccination cards have become a thing.
With businesses and events requiring proof of vaccination or negative tests to get in, vaccination cards and negative COVID-19 tests have become a form of social currency.
News Channel 8 is reporting that cybercriminals are looking to take advantage of people not wanting to get the vaccine, but wanting to be able to get back to some sort of normalcy. Brian Linder, an emerging threat expert for IT security company Check Point says there’s no system in place currently to authenticate cards:
It's a real problem that we were so busy jabbing arms, which is what we need to be doing, that the notion of a digitally authenticated vaccine card, we're nowhere near that. They're simply handwritten at the place where you get the vaccine. So, getting a facsimile of the card, it's doable.
It's possible that some form of digital proof of vaccination will emerge in the future, but it doesn’t sound like that’s going to be happening any time soon.
The FBI recently issued a warning, alerting citizens that the unauthorized use of an official government agency’s seal (such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)) is a crime that in some cases could be punishable by up to five years in prison.
In addition to obtaining a fake card being a crime, you also put yourself at risk of identity theft by giving your personal information to those who produce fake cards.
The FBI also recommends against posting pictures of your vaccine card online as criminals could steal your personal info to commit fraud.