BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has issued a warning about fake COVID Vaccine cards being sold online.
Landry joined a bipartisan coalition of 45 attorneys general in urging Twitter, eBay, and Shopify to act immediately in preventing people from marketing and selling blank or fraudulently completed COVID vaccine cards bearing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logo on their platforms. “The use of your platform to disseminate the deceptive marketing and sales of fake vaccine cards is a threat to residents of our states,” said Attorney General Landry and his colleagues in letters to the big tech giants. “As a result, we are asking you to take immediate action to prevent your platform from being used as a vehicle to commit these fraudulent and deceptive acts that harm our communities.”
Legitimate vaccination cards are given by providers when they administer the vaccine. People who buy fake cards can have their own information added to the card or add it in themselves, so it appears they have been vaccinated when they have not.
“The false and deceptive marketing and sales of fake COVID vaccine cards threatens the health of our communities, slows progress in getting our residents protected from the virus, and is a violation of the laws of many states,” added Attorney General Landry.
Attorney General Landry and his colleagues requested the Big Tech CEOs:
- Monitor their platforms for ads or links marketing or selling, or otherwise indicating the availability of, blank or fraudulently completed vaccine cards;
- Promptly take down ads or links identified through that monitoring;
- Preserve records – such as the content, username, and actual user identity – pertaining to any such ads or links
Additionally, Attorney General Landry once again encouraged consumers to report COVID scams to the National Center for Disaster Fraud by calling 866-720-5721 or filing an online complaint at www.justice.gov/DisasterComplaintForm.