The dark web is flooded with fake Covid-19 vaccination certificates, and Kaspersky Lab says it knows a solution

A security researcher at Kaspersky Lab says the dark web market for forged Covid-19 vaccination certificates is booming. Forged documents sell for an average of $300, but what buyers get for their money is another matter.

Dmitry Galov, a security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, has observed a new spike in the trading of fake Covid-19 vaccination documents on the dark web. The new spike was apparently triggered by people's "desire to travel more freely, as countries are now implementing different IT services that are checking whether you have been vaccinated," said a key figure at the Moscow-based company.

The dark web marketplace is flooded with ads for fake Covid-19 passes, with documents touted as having legitimate QR codes selling for as much as $300 on average.

We are seeing that cybercriminals are creating ads that they are putting on the dark web," said Galov. In the ads they say that people can choose what vaccines they want and what kind of fake vaccination certificates."

The dark web ads say the certificates will be issued in some Western European countries, and they claim to be able to check them in any official application, such as CovPass, CoviCheck, etc.

Galov warns, "However, those who promise to forge such documents are probably just scammers who will give you a fake certificate, but you won't be able to pass any checks or get anything."

"There is no way to check if these cybercriminals are just scammers who are trying to take money from their victims without giving anything in return, or if they actually have some kind of access or method to send such certificates. But it doesn't matter, because doing so puts users at risk." He said.

The researchers explained that tracking down thoroughbred fraudsters who seek only to deprive the scammed of their funds is very difficult given their preference for cryptocurrencies, secure messengers, and leaving virtually nothing to analyze. However, those who may have access to databases and algorithms will provide credentials that can theoretically be traced back to the source of the leak.

The researchers believe that the dark web market for fake Covid-19 passes will continue to exist as long as there is demand for them. Galov believes that universal worldwide acceptance of all available coronavirus vaccines would help alleviate this problem.

It would affect the dark web because people who have been vaccinated, people who have [had] any vaccine from their country, they would not try to buy certificates related to other [countries].