Fake Covid vaccine cards sold online for as little as £5
Fake vaccine cards have been sold online for as little as £5, raising fears that some travellers could cheat Covid passport schemes.
Fraudsters on eBay have been charging up to £28 a time for documentation that claims to record a person's Covid vaccination.
The cards – almost identical to those given out by the NHS to people who have received jabs to protect them against the virus – can be customised with details to falsely show a person has received a specific vaccine and the date on which it was administered.
Reporters at The Telegraph bought one of the fake cards from a scammer on eBay, whose listing said they had already sold more than 140 in three days before it was removed.
The card, which cost £5, bears the NHS logo and has exactly the same design and words as the real ones but is on thin shiny card rather than paper. The seller also provided batch numbers for the Pfizer vaccine that customers could use to fill in the back of the card to "prove" they had been immunised.
Experts are concerned that the fake cards could be used by people wanting to prove they have received the immunisation so they can travel abroad.
The Government has admitted the NHS app – used to prove a person has been fully vaccinated – may not be ready in time for May 17, when the foreign travel ban is lifted, and the Government is preparing "another approach" for holidaymakers travelling abroad in the interim.
At least 20 countries have already indicated that they will accept vaccination certificates as an alternative to PCR tests for holidaymakers to prove their Covid status, but it is not yet clear what form this paperwork will take.
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he was concerned that, in the rush to welcome back tourists and boost the travel economy, there was a danger that fake Covid cards could cause a resurgence in the spread of the virus.
"Using a forged vaccine certificate is stupid and criminal," he said. "It puts the bearer and those around them at risk. All of our defences rely on people being honest. If they do not, it will be the hard-working NHS staff who have to pick up the pieces."
There is a growing market for these cards due to the success of the Covid vaccine programme in the UK. Over a quarter of all UK adults are now fully vaccinated, and over half of the UK population has received a first dose.
While some sellers claimed the cards were simply intended for people who had received the vaccine and needed to replace a genuine card that had been lost, others were more brazen.
One seller with the username ember_goldfrost said in the description of the listing: "Genuine NHS vaccine Appointment ID Card. These are the cards given to people in the UK when they receive a C-19 vaccine.
"I will include a separate note in the package containing the vaccine name (AstraZeneca or Pfizer) and 2 genuine batch numbers that you can use to fill out the card. If you purchase multiple cards, you can use the same batch numbers, since many vaccine vials belong to one batch. You will also need to write a name and appointment date/time."
This seller sold more than 140 cards over three days with one buyer purchasing 12 cards before the listing disappeared. The cards were £5 each, with the price dropping to £3.50 if buying three cards.
Another seller was advertising the cards for £25, with an offer of four or more for £20 each. Both listings were later removed.
A spokesman for the NHS Counter-Fraud Authority said: "If reminder cards were misused to give false reassurance about the chance of infecting others, that would be abhorrent, as it could conceivably damage the global and national efforts to stop the spread of Covid, costing lives."
An eBay spokesman said: "Currently those who have had a vaccine are not afforded any travel privileges and are not exempt from any lockdown restrictions. These are appointment reminder cards only. However, we have removed these listings to prevent any attempt to resell government documents for personal profit."
A spokesman for the Government said: "As with other vaccination programmes, a vaccine record card is issued to patients with the relevant details about the vaccine, including the date of their vaccination and their vaccine type. This is not an immunity certification and these cards shouldn't be sold or distributed outside of the vaccination programme."
