Over 3,000 fake vaccine cards from China seized by customs and border patrol officers at port

U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized fake vaccine cards shipped from China to Tennessee last week. The shipment was disguised as paper greeting cards and upon reading the description in the shipping manifesto, customs and border patrol officers “already knew what it was,” the agency said in a statement.

The cargo was en route to New Orleans’ central business district but was intercepted at the Port of Memphis. The agency said it was the 15th such shipment that night and inside was “51 low-quality counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards.”

The cards look like real vaccine check cards with blanks for name, date of birth, vaccine brand and other information, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logo. However, the cards featured typos, incomplete words and misspelled Spanish words, the agency said.

Officers also knew the shipment was counterfeit because it had been imported by a non-CDC or medical entity. “It was not the first time they had seen this shipper,” the agency said. These mailings are described as “Paper Greeting Cards / Use Greeting Card” or “PAPER CARDS TO PAPER” and they always originate from China.

The fake vaccine cards come in packs of 20, 51 and 100 and there is never any attempt to cover them up, the agency said. Memphis isn’t the only place these counterfeits have been intercepted, however, city officials seized 121 of these shipments, totaling 3,017 of those vaccination cards.

Contraband is everywhere in the United States, the agency said. Selling, buying or using counterfeit COVID-19 cards is a crime, according to the FBI.

This can be classified as unauthorized use of an official seal of a government agency and violators could face a fine and up to five years in prison.

“These vaccines are free and available everywhere,” said Michael Neipert, regional manager for the Port of Memphis, in a statement. “If you don’t want to receive a vaccine, that’s your decision. But don’t order a counterfeit, waste my officer’s time, break the law, and present yourself in a false light.”

Neipert said ordering a fake vaccine card uses up the agents’ time “because they are also seizing fentanyl and methamphetamines.”

Last month, a licensed physician in California was arrested for allegedly planning to tamper with COVID-19 vaccination cards into believing customers had received a Moderna vaccine. Juli A. Mazi of Napa, Calif., Was also planning to sell homeoprophylactic vaccination lozenges.

According to a complaint, instead of administering vaccines to patients, Mazi gave them the lozenges, which allegedly had small amounts of COVID-19, claiming they would create an antibody response in the immune system and confer immunity. . She gave the patients vaccination cards and told them to write down that they had received the Moderna vaccine on the date they ingested the lozenges.

The Justice Department said Mazi “was selling bogus treatments” and “preying on fears and spreading misinformation about vaccinations approved by the FDA.”

She is charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of misrepresentation related to health care matters.

Faculty members at dozens of colleges and universities are also concerned about students using fake vaccination cards, the Associated Press reports. Many schools require COVID-19 vaccinations, but there are illegal ways to forge proof of vaccination cards – one being an Instagram account that sells laminated COVID-19 vaccination cards for $ 25 each.

Another counterfeit card maker sells them for $ 200 apiece through the Telegram encrypted messaging app.

And there has been an increase in inquiries on these and other sites online, with one Twitter user writing, “My daughter bought 2 fake IDs online for $ 50 while in school. Shipped from China. Does anyone have the link for vaccination cards?

A Reddit user commented on a thread about fake COVID-19 vaccination cards, writing: “I need this for college too. I refuse to be a guinea pig.”

COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. The CDC claims that “millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intense security surveillance in US history.” The agency recommends that eligible Americans, ages 12 and older, get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer called for a federal crackdown on fake vaccine cards on Sunday, demanding U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the FBI join forces with the Department of Health and Human Services to launch a campaign to thwart counterfeit cards and make it clear that they could land people in federal prison, reports the Associated Press.