Those selling fake Covid passes can face a hefty fine of £10,000
(Picture: Getty Images)With a national shortage of Covid tests and tighter restrictions getting into venues, people have been warned against sharing negative Coronavirus results on social media to avoid being fraudulently duped.
As Covid cases continue to soar across the country, some venues have now implemented a policy to provide proof of full vaccination status or a negative test result to enter the premises. This has pushed people to turn to social media to steal other people’s test results.
That’s not all.
There is a “new complication” on the horizon, in which criminal gangs are copying the codes from images of negative lateral flow tests online. They use the codes to create and sell fake Covid passes illegally.
Those who get caught selling fraudulent Covid passes will get hit with a hefty fine of £10,000.
Shahzad Ali, CEO of the UK’s leading security training platform, Get Licensed, expressed his concern that the fake passes will not only compromise the safety of venues but also those in attendance.
“There is a market for fake covid passes for people who are unvaccinated. Fraudsters are selling fake test results and COVID passes online,” he told Indy100.
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
“This is just a new complication that door supervisors will soon become used to facing,” he said. “It was always inevitable that fake Covid passes would start to appear as soon as there were rumours of them being introduced.”
“There will be people who want to go about their life like normal and not have to take Covid tests for things they didn’t have to before, so it is extremely important that you look after your Covid pass,” Shahzad added.
Shahzad strongly advised against people posting their results on social media, as “others could register it as their own test.”
You can access your Covid-19 pass through the NHS App, NHS.UK, a letter obtained on NHS.UK or by calling 119.
