DETROIT – The Michigan Attorney General’s Office is investigating a new scam involving fake vaccination cards.
Dana Nessel said someone is selling blank coronavirus vaccination cards in an online marketplace on social media.
Read: Buying a fake COVID-19 vaccination card is a crime and puts public at risk, FBI warns
“People are actually advertising that people can purchase fake vaccination cards for people who have not really been vaccinated to indicate that they have been,” Nessel said. “We now know that vaccinations are now being required with limited exceptions for all kinds of things, including universities, employers are requiring.”
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Nessel said scammers are using vaccination mandates to target people. The most recent situation in Michigan was found on social media, where someone was soliciting buyers on a Facebook group called “Mom 2 Mom Swap-Macomb County.”
“We actually asked a court in Macomb County Circuit Court to authorize a search warrant to let us go into Facebook and find out specifically who is putting up these fake vaccination ads and I’m happy to say, that we were granted that right and our search warrant was signed,” Nessel said. “I would say to those that are out there promoting these types of scams that you ought to be very, very careful and you ought to know that we are going to be very aggressive in terms of finding out who is behind this and prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law.”
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Nessel said this is a clear violation of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act that could cost tens of thousands of dollars in fines and other penalties. Nessel said because it’s a fraud case, there could be criminal charges as well.
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