Vaccine certificate forgery alert! According to the report, the black market has grown tenfold

While the fight against COVID is far from over, with WHO confirming that the Delta variant has spread across 185 countries, the world is also facing another serious threat: forged vaccine certificates.

Vaccination is critical in the fight against COVID, but the fake vaccine certificate black market poses a major threat – it’s not just a crime, a fake certificate jeopardizes everyone’s health safety. As more countries adopt vaccine certificates to track vaccination progress among their populations, the black market for fake vaccine certificates has reportedly increased tenfold in recent months.

According to a report in Wion, a study by software company Check Point discovered that the black market for fake COVID vaccine certificates has expanded to 29 countries around the world after observing the market. The nine major countries are new to the list: Austria, Brazil, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

And the fact that it’s available on apps like Telegram and WhatsApp is cause for concern. Earlier this year, fake certificates were primarily sold on the dark web, which meant that people needed to be somewhat tech-savvy to access these certificates. However, they are now easily accessible through apps such as Telegram.

There has also been an increase in the number of Telegram group members, which has risen from 30,000 to 300,000 in the last few months. While people pay anywhere from 150€ to 250€ for these certificates – Singapore is reportedly a big market – a Telegram bot has apparently been designed in Austria that can help people get such fake Covid vaccine certificates for free, according to Wion.