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May 07, 2021

Russian Scammers Use Covid-19 Vaccine to Steal Personal Information

On Monday, May 3, the U.S. Department of Justice seized a website that allegedly utilized social engineering to steal users’ personal information by fraudulently offering Covid-19 vaccines for sale. The website, freevaccinecovax.org, was created by a French IP address and was registered in Russia. The website included the logos of the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This is just one example of the prevalence of fraud as a result of the pandemic. A recent FBI report indicated a growing trend of scammers asking people to pay money to receive the vaccine, get the vaccine early, or to put their names on a vaccine waiting list. These scams appear on social media platforms, as well as via email, phone calls, and websites, and over a quarter of the victims are 55 or older.