Scammers scammed: fraudsters cash in as market for fake vaccine cards grows

The Covid vaccine is free, but some people have tried to illegally obtain fake vaccine cards only to get scammed, by other criminals

For $350, a Telegram user called NoVac Team offered to sell a Guardian reporter a fake vaccine card. The price, they said, would include having the reporter's vaccinated status registered in the Center for Disease Control (CDC) database which is connected to their health records.

The CDC does not in fact maintain any vaccination records, nor does it provide a CDC-labeled vaccination record card for people. NoVac Team is a scammer, one of many on the messaging service Telegram who are offering fake vaccine cards to anti-vaxxers and then taking their money.