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A St. Louis notary is under fire for allegedly purchasing 989 fraudulent COVID-19 vaccine cards.
Morgan Webb on Tuesday pleaded guilty to buying the cards. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the cards were sent from China and had an accurate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) insignia and looked similar to officially distributed COVID-19 vaccination cards. Webb admitted to knowing that the cards were counterfeit and purchasing them anyway.
The newspaper reported that Webb ordered the cards in September, about five months after becoming an official notary public. The cards were disguised as thank-you cards and were originally intercepted in Kentucky by Customs and Border Protection officers. The cards were eventually cleared, arriving at Webb's apartment. It is unknown if Webb sold any of them.
Ever since COVID-19 vaccines have become more widely available, the black market for fraudulent cards has grown exponentially. Newsweek previously reported on a number of cases where fake COVID-19 cards were discovered. In December, a Connecticut man who ordered a vaccine holder from Amazon received more than he bargained for when the holder also came with a blank fake card.
"Fake COVID-19 vaccine cards are a fraud on the public health — and a crime," Representative Matt Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Connecticut House, tweeted when the card was reported. "Thanks to this constituent for reporting this listing to me, and to [Attorney General William Tong's] office for this swift action."
The sale and distribution of counterfeit cards have also been prevalent over the past year. Some recent examples of these crimes include a nurse in South Carolina making a fake vaccine card for her relative and a North Carolina police chief who tried to persuade his employees to go to a self-administering clinic in order to get a vaccination card. An Associated Press investigation from August 2021 also found that students were a major market for fake COVID-19 cards.
"The problem is that there's a demand for these services, otherwise they wouldn't be appearing," Fakespot CEO Saoud Khalifah told U.S. News. "They are targeting specific user bases, because when you look at the language that these websites are using, they are actually mentioning college students, they are actually talking about, 'If you want to travel, but you don't want to get vaccinated, what do you do? You buy this service from us.'"
Webb will be sentenced for possession of an imitation insignia of a U.S. agency on April 20. She faces up to six months in prison.
