Fake vaccine certificates booming on Moscow’s black market

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Tue, 2021-06-29 00:53 — mike kraft

Now booming on Moscow’s black market: Fake vaccine certificates Interest in jabs remains low. Demand for proof of vaccination is rising. Enter the fraudsters. Isabelle Khurshudyan Washington Post

MOSCOW — It took just a few hours for fraudsters to act after Moscow's mayor announced this month that coronavirus vaccinations were compulsory for most of the city's service sector employees.

Accounts advertising the availability of fake coronavirus vaccination certificates suddenly appeared as social media followers of Russians who identified as working in restaurants or bars.

A new black market was born with a deep potential clientele: the many Russians still hesitant to be vaccinated even amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

One bartender, who provided The Washington Post with a copy of his private messages on Instagram, sent a query to one account about the cost of a fraudulent vaccination certificate.

The response was immediate: The price was the equivalent of about $25, and the bartender just needed to provide his personal information. The bartender spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss engaging in an illegal operation.

The increase in the number of people selling bogus vaccination certificates comes as Moscow has ordered 60 percent of workers who interact with the public — teachers, taxi drivers, salespeople and others — to get vaccinated or get different jobs. Their employers are subject to hefty fines for noncompliance.

The new rules, which take effect Monday, also require that restaurants and bars limit admission to people with a QR code confirming their vaccination or proof of a negative PCR coronavirus test within the previous three days. Moscow authorities have further warned that hospitals will deny routine medical care to the unvaccinated.

The extraordinary measures — Moscow now has among the strictest vaccine rules — flow from Russia’s inability to gets its arms around the pandemic despite two homegrown vaccines, led by Sputnik V, that are widely available and free. Russia’s latest coronavirus wave also shows how vaccine hesitancy threatens to prolong the pandemic worldwide. ...

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