gulftech
The entire globe is currently undergoing one of the largest and most complex vaccination campaigns in
history, and, not surprisingly, scammers and sellers on the dark market have been eager to make a profit
off the process.
Kaspersky researchers examined 15 different marketplaces on the Darknet and found advertisements for
three major COVID vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna. There were also sellers
advertising unverified “COVID19” vaccines.
The majority of sellers came France, Germany, the UK, and the USA, and the prices per dose ranged
from $250200 to $1,200, with an average cost of about $500. Communications are made via encrypted
messaging apps like Wickr and Telegram, while payments are requested in the form of cryptocurrency,
primarily bitcoin, which is far harder to trace.
The majority of these underground sellers have made between 100-500 transactions, indicating that
they’ve been completing sales but what exactly Darknet users are purchasing remains unclear. With the
information available to Kaspersky experts, it’s impossible to tell how many of the vaccines doses being
advertised online are actual doses (many medical facilities have found themselves with leftover doses)
and how many advertisements are a scam.
Even if you did receive something in the mail, most likely what you would receive would not be an
effective, valid dose. More importantly, obtaining such doses is illegal.
“You can find just about anything on the Darknet, so it’s not surprising sellers there would attempt to
capitalize on the vaccination campaign. Over the past year, there have been a whole host of scams
exploiting the COVID topic, and many of them have been successful. Right now, not only are people
selling vaccine doses, but they’re also selling vaccination records—pieces of paper that can help you
travel freely. It’s important for users to be cautious of any “deal” related to the pandemic, and, of course,
it’s never a good idea to buy a vaccine off the Darknet,” comments Dmitry Galov, security expert at
Kaspersky.
Learn more about these Darknet vaccines on Kdaily.
To stay safe from scammers at the time of COVID, Kaspersky experts recommend:
Never buy products—including vaccine doses—on the Darknet
If you see an advertisement for something related to COVID, look carefully at the URLs of the
sites that you visit. If just one letter looks out of place, or if the usual .com has been replaced
with .com.tk or something along those lines, your gut should tell you it’s phishing. Never enter
personal information on such a site.
Pay attention to grammar and layout on both the sites you visits and the emails you receive. If
something smells phishy, it probably is
