Telegram groups are being abused by fraudsters peddling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to the unvaccinated and anti-vaxxer communities, according to researchers.
Brittany Allen, trust and safety architect at Sift, noticed the illicit sales on the encrypted messaging platform as the COVID-19 vaccination began to ramp up earlier in the year. Several groups circulating on Telegram specialize in different types of fraud, including selling stolen credentials or credit-card numbers, as well as guides to how to defraud certain companies. Lately though, fraudulent vaccination cards have become a hot commodity, she said.
“When it became a bigger possibility of being able to travel, or when certain events began to require proof of vaccination, we started to see people posting vaccine cards for sale or soliciting vaccine cards for themselves,” she told Threatpost in an interview.