Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/coronavirus-vaccines-darknet/38903/
COVID-19 vaccines in darknet marketplaces
What could possibly go wrong with coronavirus vaccine from a darknet marketplace?
Kaspersky Team
...
Searching 15 marketplaces, Kaspersky experts found advertisements for three major COVID vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna. They also found some advertisements for unverified vaccines.
Prices per dose range from $250 to $1,200, averaging around $500. Further analysis showed that pricing had increased significantly following publication of Moderna?s and Pfizer?s effectiveness, as did the number of advertisements. Sellers primarily come from France, Germany, the UK, and the USA, and communications use encrypted messaging apps such as Wickr and Telegram.
Sellers predominantly request payments in the form of bitcoin, with rare exceptions accepting other cryptocurrency. That makes the payments harder to track and protects the sellers? anonymity.
Many of the sellers Kaspersky researchers found had conducted 100 to 500 such transactions.
...
No rush for vaccination, just get the certificate
People unwilling to fork over several hundred dollars to purchase a vaccine dose may go for a far cheaper scheme: buying fake vaccination certificates. European countries are the primary source for these certificates, which help ease lockdown measures for certain individuals and facilitate international travel. A European vaccination record card costs about $20?$25...
COVID-19 vaccines in darknet marketplaces
What could possibly go wrong with coronavirus vaccine from a darknet marketplace?
Kaspersky Team
...
Searching 15 marketplaces, Kaspersky experts found advertisements for three major COVID vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna. They also found some advertisements for unverified vaccines.
Prices per dose range from $250 to $1,200, averaging around $500. Further analysis showed that pricing had increased significantly following publication of Moderna?s and Pfizer?s effectiveness, as did the number of advertisements. Sellers primarily come from France, Germany, the UK, and the USA, and communications use encrypted messaging apps such as Wickr and Telegram.
Sellers predominantly request payments in the form of bitcoin, with rare exceptions accepting other cryptocurrency. That makes the payments harder to track and protects the sellers? anonymity.
Many of the sellers Kaspersky researchers found had conducted 100 to 500 such transactions.
...
No rush for vaccination, just get the certificate
People unwilling to fork over several hundred dollars to purchase a vaccine dose may go for a far cheaper scheme: buying fake vaccination certificates. European countries are the primary source for these certificates, which help ease lockdown measures for certain individuals and facilitate international travel. A European vaccination record card costs about $20?$25...