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What security researchers have warned about has now become reality: The market for fake vaccines on the darknet is growing rapidly. The security firm CheckPoint and Europol warned back in December that fake medicines or malware are usually hidden behind such offers. At that time, fraudsters had already offered alleged vaccine doses, including those from Pfizer/Biontech, for sale in exchange for Bitcoin. The prices amounted to an average of 250 euros per dosage, futurezone.at reported.
The online techno platform further reports that in January, the business had now increased by another 400 percent, according to CheckPoint. While there were 8 sites with such false offers in December, the security researchers now found 34 sites with a total of 340 such offers. Also the prices rose, the fraudsters demand now between 410 and 822 euro per vaccination dose.
Instead of individual doses, they now also sell packages, which the researchers interpret as an expansion of the business field. People are to be motivated to buy vaccines for friends and family and pay significantly higher prices. One seller even offered 10,000 doses for 24,657 euros.
The offers are often provided by the fraudsters with a fake seal of approval from the testing agencies, such as the U.S. FDA, without providing any further information about the vaccine. CheckPoint wanted to order a Chinese vaccine for the equivalent of 616 euros on the darknet during a test purchase. After payment, however, the delivery never arrived and the seller’s account was deleted shortly thereafter.
- source: futurezone.at/picture: pixabay.com
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