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The owner of Old Corner Saloon in Clements, California, was arrested and charged for allegedly selling fake COVID-19 vaccine cards, California state officials announced Wednesday.
California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) officials received a complaint that the saloon owner was selling fake vaccination cards and opened an investigation in April, according to the agency. Undercover ABC agents allegedly purchased fraudulent vaccination cards from the Old Corner Saloon on multiple occasions in April, the agency said.
“Agents arrested the owner of the business on allegations of selling the fraudulent cards,” a California ABC Spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “He was booked at the local county jail on charges of violating Penal Code Section 471.5 (altering a medical record), Penal Code Section 472 (forgery of a public seal), Penal Code Section 530.5 (identity theft), and Penal Code Section 182(a) (conspiracy).”
The long and messy history of vaccine cards
Even in our 21st-century pandemic, weâre clutching a familiar paper artifact.
By Hannah MarcusUpdated May 1, 2021, 3:00 a.m.
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A form that affirmed the health of travelers in 17th-century Italy.Wellcome Collection/CC by 4.0
My first vaccination at the Hynes Convention Center happened startlingly quickly, and I was grateful for 15 minutes in the recovery area to sit with my vaccine card and my thoughts. I am a historian, and I use documents like this to piece together the forgotten past and to tie individuals to the momentous events of history.
Houston officials, FBI warn against use of fake vaccination cards
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HOUSTON – The list of venues, establishments and government entities that currently or will soon require proof of vaccination is growing, and so is vaccine card fraud.
The fake cards can be bought for cheap on the dark web and sometimes on public online shopping and social media sites.
“They’re very easy to get, and a lot of people are getting them,” Crime Stoppers of Houston CEO Rania Mankarious said in an interview on Monday.
The Attorneys General of 46 states recently signed on to a letter addressed to the CEOs of Twitter, eBay and Shopify demanding they do more to prevent vaccine card fraud.
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KLCC s Brian Bull reports on fake vaccination cards being sold online, and FBI official s warnings against posting your card online.
Some online vendors are selling the counterfeit cards presumably for people who don’t want to actually take the vaccine, but want to convince people that they did. Others are sharing templates for printing fraudulent vaccination cards at home.
Falsifying a federal document with the CDC seal is already shady, but FBI spokesperson Beth Anne Steele said it gets worse.
“Let’s say you use that vaccine card to show that you’ve been vaccinated to get into a gym or into a school, or some other facility where they’re asking you to show that card, and you are not indeed vaccinated,” said Steele. “They assume that you are, and then you are now potentially exposing other people within that facility to your potential COVID status.”