Black market for vaccines on the darknet growing rapidly
IT security provider Checkpoint warns against fraudsters who hawk alleged vaccines from Biontech and Pfizer for Bitcoins on the Darknet. The offers often hide fake medicines and malware.
Now the business around alleged vaccines is also picking up on the Darknet. Thus warns cyber security solutions provider Checkpoint against vaccine counterfeits on the Darknet. Fraudsters offer common vaccine doses such as Biontech and Pfizer. Bitcoins are demanded as a means of payment. With the anonymous Internet currency, a common payment method on the darknet, tracing is also proving difficult.
"Vaccine offers" up 400 percent
According to the report, the number of advertisements on the darknet for the alleged Pfizer and Biontech vaccine rose by a good 400 percent. A simple search by security researchers turned up 340 results on 34 pages, according to Checkpoint's statement. In December, there were only about eight pages in a similar search.
The prices for the vaccines on offer are also interesting. These are now rising on the black market from $250 to $1,000. As a rule, however, it is not individual doses that are sold, but entire packages. However, the observation that most vaccines are advertised as "Made in China" and thus do not contain a brand label from an authority such as the FDA or ENSA is also frightening.
However, the reliability of the offers is also questionable. Checkpoint has put this to the test. Some of the sellers contacted do not deliver or, when contacted, suddenly pretend to have many more vaccine doses and then want to deliver them all at once at a much higher price because, as a rule, two doses are required per vaccination. However, it is also possible, as Checkpoint writes, that behind the offers there are often only fake medications - or simply: malware.
Previously also warned the supranational police Europol.
Source: research.checkpoint.com
