At first, there were fake vaccines and now bogus coronavirus immunization certificates are being offered for sale in the Mexican capital, aimed at people traveling to countries that require proof of vaccination. A new service has appeared alongside documents purporting to be birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and passports.

A vendor said that customers for the fake COVID 19 vaccination certificates are usually those who want to travel but have not been fully immunized or who received vaccines not recognized in the country they plan to visit.” If they were vaccinated with the Chinese shots, here we change it for Pfizer or Sputnik V,” said the man, who gave his name as Cris.

According to an AFP reporter, he told the potential customers the price range from 1,100 to 2,000 Mexican pesos. Cris added “In two hours you’ll have the document,” his face partly concealed by a face mask, as he worked in the Santo Domingo district.

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Recently, Mexico’s health ministry announced that people who have been vaccinated can download the vaccination certificate for free through an official website to use it when traveling or in other situations. In Mexico, around 21 million people have been fully vaccinated, a country of 126 million, which has used Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Cansino, Sputnik V, and Johnson & Johnson shots.

The official certificates have a QR code that redirects to a government page when scanned to confirm the holder is fully immunized. Although the counterfeiters offer to tamper with that code, still it is unclear whether they work or not.  A cybersecurity specialist Carlos Ramirez said that to cheat the system would require a certain level of technological know-how so that the person checking the certificate is redirected to a fake government website.

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He said in theory, it would be possible to load each QR with the data requested by customers, a bit challenging but not impossible task for cybercriminals. However, the Mexican health ministry did not respond to a request for information about its digital security protocols and what measures it plans in response to the counterfeits.

Meanwhile, it is not the first fraudulent activity linked to the coronavirus pandemic in Mexico, Pfizer said that in April fake vaccines had been found for sale under its brand name.  Forged laboratory tests with a negative COVID19 result are also on sale for about $30 in Santa Domingo.

The falsification of official documents carries a prison sentence of four to eight years in Mexico, whose official coronavirus death toll of more than 235,000 is the world’s fourth-highest.