Sellers on 15 different “dark web” marketplaces have dispersed hundreds of doses of what they allege are COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. What’s more, Kaspersky’s researchers believe a significant portion of those sales, as much as 30%, could be of actual vaccines.
“There is evidence that suggests some of these sellers are providing real doses,” says Dmitry Galov, a researcher at Kaspersky who led the study of illicit online vaccines sales. “There are pictures of packaging and medical certificates. It looks like some of these people do have inside access to medical institutions.”
The doses are available for as much as $1,200 a pop, and researchers from Kaspersky, who completed their study two weeks ago, say some vaccine hawkers have completed as many as 500 transactions. Galov said the prices have been rising recently, and all of the sales are conducted in cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, making them hard to track. But Kaspersky said at least some of the sellers claimed they were located in the United States. Other sellers said they were based in Europe.
Most of the sellers appear to be unsophisticated and only offering a few doses each. But Galov said the Kaspersky researchers found at least a handful of sellers who had completed hundreds of transactions of what appear to be actual vaccines.
One of the vaccine offers Kaspersky found said it’s not selling vaccines but instead is accepting donations in exchange for doses. “Your donations will help to save more lives so please show your generosity,” reads the offer, which instructs donors to send $81 in bitcoin per requested dose upfront, along with a name, address and any known diseases or medical condistions to get a shipment of vaccine. It says supplies are limited so “we can save more lives as quickly as possible.”
Lev Kubiak, chief security officer at Pfizer, told CBS MoneyWatch the pharmaceutical company has found some instances of scammers counterfeiting the company’s packaging, but no actual doses for sale.
“Pfizer proactively monitors the internet including the dark web, and coordinates with law enforcement,” Kubiak said. “We haven’t seen any real doses sold in the illicit marketplace.”
Kubiak said Pfizer has been closely tracking where its vaccines are going and has attempted undercover purchases with no success.
“In the U.S., there is no charge to be vaccinated, and the only vaccine that is being sold in the U.S. is to government agencies,” Kubiak said. “People need to be very careful. As far as we can tell there has be no leakage of doses [outside of legitimate vaccination channels.]”
Spokespeople for vaccine makers Moderna and AstraZenca did not return requests for comment.
The problem of whether some vaccines are being sold on the dark web — and whether people are being ripped off — has been growing. The dark web is the general term used for web pages that are coded so they can’t be found by Google or other search engines. Often the webpages are also encrypted.
An academic study published in January found vaccine offers began popping up on the dark web as early as March 2020. Those offers were almost certainly fake.
Last month, Check Point told CBS Chicago the number of ads for vaccines on the dark web had grown rapidly in the previous six weeks. But when researchers from that cybersecurity firm tried to buy vaccines, the sellers disappeared before they ended up getting any doses.
“Our expectations were low, and, of course, they weren’t met,” Mark Ostrowski, head of engineering for Check Point, told CBS Chicago.
Also for sale: phony vaccine cards and test results
Kaspersky’s Galov said there are some specialized markets on the dark web that are invite-only and claim to be offering vaccines. But vaccines are also on sale at some of the larger dark web marketplaces. Galov said Kaspersky decided against disclosing the names of those marketplaces in its study because it didn’t want to encourage individuals to attempt to get vaccines on their own.
“It’s more tricky than going to Amazon,” Galov said. “But it is not something that is that so hard that only a specialized engineer can figure it out.”
Galov said he’s seen no evidence of regulators trying to crack down on those claiming to sell vaccines. Also for sale are phony vaccination cards and forged documents that claim a person has had a negative COVID-19 test. Dubious treatments for the disease are being touted, also.
In some instances, sellers claimed they had created special shipping containers to send doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, which must be kept at temperatures well below zero in order to remain effective.
“Sellers are trying to prove [the doses] are not fake,” said Galov. “We think some of them are indeed real.”
