Vaccine passports – digital records of an individual’s COVID-19 vaccination status – are on their way. This is likely to be a QR code on your phone, which you scan to enter a flight or event.
As with any major new initiative, scammers always find ways to take advantage of confusion and anxiety surrounding the change.
Be on the lookout for vaccine passport cons.
In the United States, a group of companies is working on a passport app, which could be used for travel and attending large events.
Vaccine passport apps are already used in some places. Right now, on certain flights to Hawaii, passengers can use an app to show they meet Hawaii’s negative COVID-19 test requirement. New York State launched Excelsior Pass, an app that pulls from the state’s COVID-19 vaccine registry to confirm vaccination status.
Scams are very likely to appear as apps roll out. Here’s what to watch out for:
• Be skeptical of any vaccine passport app that claims to be from the U.S. federal government. Right now, the U.S. federal government has no plans to create a national vaccine passport. Email, calls, and text messages that claim the government is requiring such a passport are likely scams.
• Flying or attending an event? Check with the company directly. You may need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test or vaccine to attend an event or board a flight. As with all things related to COVID-19, policies are frequently changing. Be sure to check with your airline, sports team, event venue, etc. beforehand to get the latest details.
• Don’t buy fraudulent vaccine cards. Don’t support scammers and undermine the vaccine effort by buying a black market vaccine card. Misrepresenting yourself as vaccinated means you put yourself and others around you at risk.
• Research carefully. If you receive an invitation to download a COVID-19 vaccine passport app, be sure to do your research before entering your personal information. Scammers are very creative, so be skeptical of anything that seems too good – or crazy – to be true. Double check any information against official news sources and company websites.
• Guard your government-issued numbers. Never offer your Medicare ID number, Social Security number, health plan information, or banking information to anyone you don’t know or trust.
• Think the link may be real? Double check the URL. Scammers often buy official-looking URL domains to use in their cons. Be careful to ensure that the link destination is really what it claims to be. If the message claims to be from the government, make sure the URL ends in .gov. When in doubt, perform a separate internet search for the website or call the source directly.
Report scams to Scamtracker.org, Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov, and FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov.
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