A prolific Irish drug dealer is selling fake Covid vaccine certificates on the dark web for as much as €350 each.
The Irish Times has reported that the digital certificates are likely functional and are being sold to people who want to travel abroad on holidays but do not want to be vaccinated.
The seller is one of a number of people advertising what are purporting to be Irish vaccine certificates on dark web marketplaces.
Fake negative PCR tests and fake documents stating the holder has recently recovered from Covid-19 are also available on other sites.
Gardaí said they are consulting with health officials on how to respond. The Department of Health said it is working with other EU countries to put in a system to revoke or invalidate fraudulent certificates at short notice.
A Garda spokesman told The Irish Times that use of a fraudulent certificate is an offence under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Offenders may also be guilty of a separate, recently introduced, offence of using a fake Covid cert, which carries a maximum €2,000 fine.
According to gardaí and health officials, there have been no reported instances of anyone being caught using a fake certificate in Ireland to date. “An Garda Síochána continues to appeal to all citizens to comply with public health guidelines and regulations in order to continue to save lives,” the Garda said.
“Member states and the [European] Commission are working at national and European level on improving invalidation and revocation systems, to be able to react to any such cases quickly,” a Department of Health spokeswoman said.
The seller advertising fake Irish certificates for €350 operates on a well known dark web marketplace for illicit items, which can only be accessed using specialist software.
The price includes a digital certificate containing a custom QR code, which will display the buyer’s name when scanned.
It also includes a realistic-looking, printed HSE vaccination card. “Full Irish vaccine passport, not recorded on database,” customers are told, meaning the code could not easily be cancelled by health authorities.
