Four women suspected of being involved in manufacturing and selling falsified COVID-19 vaccine certificates have been detained in Vsetín.
According to iDNES, these false documents are believed to have been sold for a price between 2 and 7,000 crowns. The women are suspected of providing fake Covid certificates to over 70 people, for which they took in almost CZK 500,000
“An anonymous letter addressed to the management of the Vsetín (Zlín Region) hospital drew our attention,” said Chief Inspector Petr Jaroš.
Two women are suspected of accepting bribes, forging and altering the documents. Two other two worked in the Vsetín vaccination center and registered those interested in the systems without physically undergoing the vaccination,” Jaroš added.
The four women now face different penalties for crimes, the highest of which is up to five years in prison.
Digital vaccine passports, and vaccine passports in general, have been a topic of heated debate across Europe.
The news of falsified documents made headlines in October after fake certificates belonging to Adolf Hitler, Spongebob and Mickey Mouse were discovered. It was assumed that these had been made to show off what the counterfeiters were capable of.
The hacker group Chaos Computer Club (CCC) told lawmakers back when the passports were being discussed that forgery-proof encryptions would not be able to prevent single documents from being falsified.
Matthias Marx from the CCC said that the demand for fake passports would likely increase: “The stricter the rules for the unvaccinated, the greater the incentive to get a counterfeit. And then someone will offer it.”
