Combating Covid Scams Via AI-based Vaccine Certificate Verification Solution

Fraud prevention and mitigation have always been hot topics. Fraudsters try to find gaps in the system to proceed with their malicious intentions, while businesses try to combat them. Speaking of frauds or scams, we mostly think about finance-related crimes, but new schemes have emerged in today’s age.

New Scam of 2021 — Fake Vaccination Cards

In 2019, coronavirus hit the world and left major impacts on human lives. In 2021, the vaccine gave hope to the world for fighting the fatal disease. Governments put pressure on people for vaccination by imposing mandatory covid vaccine certificate verification requirements at different points, for instance;

• Airports for international air travel
• Entering shopping malls, cinemas, areas and business centres
• Government offices and state departments
• Public intercity and intracity transport
• Educational institutes, including schools

Some people have reservations regarding the Covid-19 vaccine and instead, go for fake covid vaccine certificates. Fraudsters create these fake cards using photoshop software, which gives them exact copies of original vaccine cards. This scam can expedite the spread of the virus, as someone having a vaccine card might be positive for covid. It does not affect the bank accounts but the health of people. This demands an urgent and robust solution for verifying vaccine passports.

Social Media — A Marketplace for Selling Fake Vaccine Cards

Scammers sell fake vaccination cards over social media as it is easy to get the masses’ attention without any hurdle there. Buying, selling or creating fake vaccine cards was declared a crime by the Federal Bureau of Investigation back in March 2021.

The fake covid vaccine card market is booming as the countries are insisting on vaccination. There are reports where one fake certificate was sold for USD 100, the price hikes as President Biden indicates vaccine obligations.

The Telegram groups became more active in selling fake vaccine cards, as the number of sellers touched 10,000 in just the first two weeks of September. The sellers use Instagram, Telegram and Facebook as a marketplace for fake vaccine certificates. A woman was caught selling fake vaccine cards on Instagram in Manhattan, it was reported that she had sold over 250 cards.

Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office is working to summon Facebook over the issue of fake vaccine sale on its platforms, including Instagram. They are more likely to request Facebook authorities to reveal the identity of a user selling fake vaccine certificates. Moreover, Manhattan Attorney General Vance said that social media companies need to prevent these cases.

According to WebMD, US customs has seized more than 6,000 phoney vaccine certificates so far. The authorities pointed to two mail packages from China that contained 70 fake cards.

Covid Vaccine Certificate Verification

Different businesses, especially finance-related, suffer from fake document scams. Fraudsters use fake IDs for account opening and then perform their fraudulent activities. They use forged documents, just like the false covid vaccine certificate.

Businesses use document verification services in which customers have to provide an image of ID, the solution checks the format, MRZ code, rainbow signs and holograms. Powered with AI, it can spot even a small point of tampering or forgery, which helps businesses to combat identity theft.

The same solution can be used for verifying covid vaccine certificates, the solution provided by Shufti Pro. It verifies the authenticity of vaccine certificates by checking their format and data like vaccination date and type. The covid vaccine certificate verification solution provides an on-the-go solution that not only verifies the vaccine certificate, but also the PCR test. Some countries require a negative PCR test report in case a person is not vaccinated. However, the PCR test should be a maximum of 3 days old.

Concluding the Above

Businesses that are obliged to verify covid certificate vaccine or PCR reports can use Shufti Pro’s solution, saving them from the tedious and time-consuming manual verification process. Furthermore, it gives more accurate results than traditional verification processes. It complies with the GDPR, protecting the data privacy of people. It does not require any installation or integration with a device or software, just use the touchless kiosk or open the solution in the browser to verify covid certificates.