Yes, there are already people selling (and people buying!) Fake COVID-19 vaccine over the internet

At the end of 2020, Jürgen Stock, secretary general of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), issued a warning making it clear that organized crime would act throughout 2021 by infiltrating the supply chain, smuggling and even selling counterfeit versions of vaccines designed to fight the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV2). Whoever doubted Stock is biting his own tongue.

Right here in Brazil, you see, there are already scammers taking advantage of widespread despair (and the conflict of information propagated by unofficial means) to sell false doses of CoronaVac, an immunizer produced by the Chinese giant Sinovac in partnership with the Butantan Institute. The scam was being applied to a malicious website called simply the 24-hour pharmacy.

With a simple design and no other medication for sale – enough warning signs to leave anyone with a flea behind the ear – the online store offered a kit with ten doses of the vaccine for a trifle of R $ 98, with free shipping throughout Brazil and guaranteed delivery within five working days. To try to convey a little bit of confidence, the embezzlers pointed out a physical address in Vila Olímpia, in São Paulo.

It is obvious that the São Paulo Consumer Protection and Defense Foundation (PROCON-SP) went there to hit the address mentioned and found … Nothing. The physical store did not exist and was not even registered in the luxurious corporate complex it claimed to be. It is impossible to know how many people have already fallen for the coup and, until the time this article was written, the site unfortunately remained on the air.

“People, in the face of the serious situation we are experiencing, acquire these vaccines that, obviously, will not be delivered. It is a scam, a company that does not exist, that abuses citizens’ fear and insecurity. This is a crime and Procon-SP will act together with the Civil Police, ”said Fernando Capez, executive director of the institute.

Source: PROCON-SP