Due to mandatory vaccination requirements in the US and EU, demand for fake vaccination cards has increased exponentially on social media platforms Telegram and the dark web

The U.S. government says federal workers must be vaccinated or undergo regular nucleic acid testing, mask wearing requirements and maintain social distance. California requires state employees to receive vaccinations or nucleic acid testing at least once a week. New York State will soon follow suit, and New York City plans to require proof of vaccination for patrons and employees of restaurants and gyms.

Employers such as Walt Disney Company, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Microsoft Corporation require proof of vaccination for their employees. Employers such as Wal-Mart Stores, Microsoft and Tyson Foods are requiring vaccinations for at least some of their employees.

In the United States and parts of Europe, proof of vaccination is required for indoor dining, museum visits and participation in major sporting events.

The popularity of such requirements has created a market for unvaccinated people who need fake vaccination cards, according to the Wall Street Journal. Vaccination cards requirements in the U.S. and Europe have spurred a new market for fake vaccination certificates. In recent weeks, schemes to sell illegal vaccination certificates have multiplied on e-commerce sites, the social networking platform Telegram and the dark web.

Dmitry Galov, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, told The Wall Street Journal, "The demand has spawned offers as a segment of the population tries to avoid the new measures and the dark web reacts to the real market."

Vaccination cards issued in the U.S. are small white cards issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that security experts believe are easy to forge, resulting in fake vaccination cards on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy, according to the Wall Street Journal. Individuals have also been arrested for selling fake vaccination cards, such as in California, where a bar owner was arrested for allegedly charging $20 for selling fake vaccination cards.

Fake certificates are also on the rise in EU countries, where each individual has a digital certificate with a special QR code as a vaccination card. In Italy, for example, about 30 social media profiles claiming to sell fake vaccination certificates have appeared, and about 500 of them have been sold at one point or another in the past few months. Most of the fraudulent cards appeared on the Telegram platform, which shut down the sale of the fake certificates when the Italian government requested it, according to Le Monde. Eugenio Fusco, the Milan prosecutor in charge of investigating the fake certificates, told the Wall Street Journal, "At least by closing these accounts, we have temporarily stopped the phenomenon."