Malaga couple sells fake Covid certificates to anti-vaxxers

A couple from Malaga have been producing fake Covid certificates and selling them to anti-vaxxers.

In the midst of the resurgence of infections by the omicron variant, more and more autonomous communities have made the Covid passport mandatory to be able to access closed spaces with the intention of increasing the vaccination rate and containing the pandemic in Spain. However, among anti-vaccine circles, there are those who try to make money by selling fake certificates to deceive the authorities.
This is what a couple from Malaga have been doing, producing certificates that they later sell to deniers for €350 per unit or two for €450, a Christmas offer.
This has been uncovered by an investigation carried out by the computer expertise company QuantiKa14, which has infiltrated channels of Telegram channels, where deniers of the pandemic and opponents of vaccines chat and organise their protests, to track down these criminals.
The investigation also reveals a particularly worrisome detail – the possibility that anti-vaxx doctors have collaborated with the couple to validate the certificates fraudulently.
“Our certificates are produced by a doctor (…) we register the certificate in the Health database, so your  QR code corresponds perfectly to you,” reads one of the messages on Telegram.
That means that, as Coronado points out, they do not have proof of whether these certificates are false or have been endorsed by Spanish public health through an illegal method. That is something that the police will have to clarify, which is already taking over the investigation advanced by QuantiKa14.
In addition, the couple demanded the payment of the certificates in cryptocurrencies “That makes tracking the payment much more difficult than with a regular bank transfer,” adds the founder of the company.
Beyond this specific case, the sale of fake Covid passports begins to proliferate on the networks.
“It is the latest trend that cybercriminals rely on,” warns  Marcos Gomez, deputy director of services at the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE.)
“They are false services with which they try to steal your data.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.