FAKE Covid travel documents are being sold online for as little as a £100 just as Britain opens up its borders to double-jabbed tourists.
Criminals are flogging forged EU and US documents claiming they come from an international network of corrupt doctors who enter false records of vaccinations on national databases.
Ads on messaging app Telegram claim to be able to provide a “vaccination card for anyone who does not want to take the vaccination but needs the vaccination card for work and travel.”
As fully vaccinated travellers from the EU and USA can enter the UK from Monday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he “cannot guarantee” that there would not be efforts to use fake documents.
One dodgy vendor boasts: “Our vaccination certificates are registered and authentic, clearly showing that you have been vaccinated and are displayed in the country’s database system with a valid vaccination number.”
After explaining that the documentation could help with entry to several different nations they said: “We are working on gaining access to other countries’ medical systems and will update the list.
One seller said he was able to arrange false documents for €200 (£170) each or €100 (£85) for two or more.
He followed up by sending a series of images showing documents laid out on a table.
He sent screenshots from an apparently satisfied customer wanting five more certificates to get his family into Belgium.
He demanded to be paid using Bitcoin but also said he would happily take payment through PayPal.
Sun investigators found six group channels on Telegram – used by criminals to to flog items – who were selling fake Covid documents.
Shockingly their combined following was over 230,000 people worldwide.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest updates
The forgers have turned to Telegram after being blacklisted on traditional networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and eBay.
Yesterday Mr Raab said the Government “cannot guarantee” that there would not be efforts to use fake documents, but it was “highly unlikely.”
He said: “The point here is that, with both the European countries and the US, we are talking about high-trust countries with whom we have not just an intuitive level of high trust, we have active cooperation, so we know that we can straighten out any discrepancies we might come across pretty quickly.”
He added a “double lock” of written certification and proof of US residency for American travellers, will allow “further checks if there is any suspicion of fraud.”
It comes as Europeans jabbed with unregulated Russian and Chinese jabs will not be able to skip quarantine when coming to the UK.
Mr Raab said Britain is not risking a new deadly covid outbreak by opening the borders to double-jabbed travellers from the EU and USA.
He said that there would be the “right level of security and assurance” adding: “So if it’s one or other of the Chinese or Russian vaccines, which have not been approved they wouldn’t be allowed.”
Millions of Hungarians have been jabbed with the batches and won’t be able enter the UK quarantine free.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.hellofaread.com/politics/moaning-hate-preacher-anjem-choudary-is-banned-from-twitter-just-five-days-after-joining/
