Cheating with COVID Cards

Sellers Offering CDC Vaccine Cards and The Platforms Making It Possible

This summer, numerous media headlines focused on online sellers illegally pushing COVID vaccine cards for sale on social media platforms, particularly Telegram. The cards stamped with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) logos that sell for between $100 and $200 have been hot commodities for months. So why are illegal vaccine cards still so readily available on social media platforms? Researchers from Digital Citizens Alliance (Digital Citizens) and Coalition for a Safer Web (CSW) have theories about why the number of vaccine cards available seems to be growing instead of shrinking. However, the two organizations are even more concerned about another development that should make headlines as well.

Vaccine card sellers have moved from the backrooms of Telegram and into the mainstream via Facebook and Instagram.

Digital Citizens and CSW researchers contacted sellers on Telegram, Facebook, and Instagram and found many of the same patterns and tactics from each:

• Utilizing misinformation and disinformation to persuade vulnerable buyers to act quickly.
• Seizing on the language of the anti-vaccine movement to at least appear as kindred spirits. Sellers offer the cards as a sort of ‘public service’ to those in the anti-vax community who don’t want the vaccine and don’t want to compromise their lifestyle because of vaccine mandates.
• Showing pictures of cards with lot numbers and actual stores (including major pharmacies), then promising in 1:1 conversations on apps like Telegram and What’s App the ability to produce a card that appears legitimate – using actual vaccine lot numbers and store information. The sellers claim and/or imply that they have contacts inside legitimate, respected drug stores and the offices of medical professionals. The rogue sellers claim they can create cards designed to evade potential law enforcement scrutiny using resources from legitimate businesses.
  
  

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