HomeNewsFake Vaccination Certificates: The Next COVID-19 Forgery in Mexico
NEWS

Fake Vaccination Certificates: The Next COVID-19 Forgery in Mexico

COVID AND CRIME / 22 JUL 2021 BY MARK WILSON EN

After peddling fake tests and vaccines for the coronavirus, criminals are now selling counterfeit vaccination certificates in Mexico City, allowing their customers to lie about their vaccine status and travel abroad.

Vendors in Mexico City’s Plaza de Santo Domingo neighborhood are charging 500 to 600 pesos ($24 to $30) for the fabricated documents, El Universal reported. The discovery was made less than a week after the Mexican government announced the certificates program on July 6.

The fabricated documents appear to have two purposes for travel. First, unvaccinated people, or those with their first dose, can use the fake certificates to gain entry to countries that require two doses.  

Second, they can change the vaccine listed on their certificate for countries with specific requirements. For example, the European Union only accepts travelers having received Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca or Johnson and Johnson vaccines, the four approved by the European Medicine Agency.

Yet, in Mexico, many people have received the China-made CanSino or Sinovac vaccines.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of COVID-19 and Crime

Unfounded fears of the vaccine may also be playing a part. An unnamed vendor selling falsified certificates told El Universal that some people buy a fake certificate to avoid being vaccinated "because they said they were going to be killed."

The fake documents work by including a QR code that redirects to a fake website designed to look similar to the government COVID-19 vaccination website. In an interview with Agence France-Presse, cybersecurity expert Carlos Ramírez said that it is challenging but possible for criminals to “load each QR with the data requested by customers.”

The desire for fake vaccination certificates goes beyond Mexico’s borders, with Paraguay and Peru already reporting dozens of falsified certificates.

InSight Crime Analysis

At every stage of the pandemic, petty criminals have taken advantage of vulnerable government responses within days. False vaccination certificates are just the latest example.

Counterfeit negative tests were first made available. In January 2021, El País discovered a scheme that sold negative tests at Cancún International Airport, especially for expatriates and foreign tourists returning home.

SEE ALSO: Liquid Gold - False COVID-19 Vaccines Emerge in Latin America

Both proven and unproven cures have also quickly appeared on the black market. A Colombian doctor was arrested in Venezuela last September for illegally selling the first drug shown to be effective against COVID-19, remdesivir. In Brazil, authorities seized 120 boxes of smuggled hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug touted by President Jair Bolsonaro as a potential treatment for the coronavirus that was shown to be ineffective.

Finally, Mexico has been a hotspot of phony vaccines. In January 2021, Mexico’s National Council of Private Security (Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Privada – CNSP) reported that laboratories making fake vaccines had been found in the states of Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, and Mexico City. While in Venezuela in June, nearly 2,000 people were scammed into purchasing vials of boiling water and additives advertised as the Sputnik V and Sinopharm vaccines for $100 to $450.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARGENTINA / 5 JUL 2022

Why did drug trafficking enjoy such a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic…

EL MENCHO / 2 SEP 2021

As violence has continued to rise in Mexico year after year, criminal groups have adopted an increasingly militarized approach to…

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 7 MAR 2022

Authorities in Mexico recently seized an historic amount of high-powered weapons and ammunition in a northern border state, laying bare…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…