In the capital, law enforcement officers stopped the work of another company that was selling fake certificates of vaccination against coronavirus.

The police reached the company through a female courier who delivered a fake certificate to the customer.

The official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Irina Volk told reporters about this on Wednesday.

The buyer bought a fake certificate via the Internet for 3800 rubles.

The detained woman works for one of the delivery companies.

She admitted that sealed envelopes with certificates were brought to their office every day, which were then sent to clients.

“In the office of the organization on one of the central streets of Moscow, operatives conducted a search.

Found 20 envelopes with vaccination certificates.

According to the results of the examination, all the seized medical documents were found to be fake, ”Volk added.

Criminal cases were initiated under the article on forgery, production or circulation of forged documents (part 1 of article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which provides for imprisonment for up to two years.

Also on russian.rt.com "We need measures to combat these swindlers": the Kremlin is concerned about falsification of vaccination certificates and QR codes

The market is growing

According to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow, since the beginning of this year, 49 criminal cases have been opened in the capital on falsification of PCR tests and certificates of vaccination against coronavirus.

At the same time, almost a third of them (14 cases) were initiated in the last week.

In addition to combating certificate counterfeiting, law enforcement officers also suppress the counterfeiting of QR codes confirming the fact of vaccination.

From June 28, such codes are necessary for every person to dine in restaurants and cafes in Moscow.

Since July 12, residents of the city who do not have confirmation of vaccination, a previous coronavirus infection or a valid negative result of a PCR test will not be able to get to the summer verandas of the capital's public catering. 

The range of fraudulent services is wide: from falsifying a QR code to entering customer data into the federal register of the register of vaccinated against COVID-19.

In the latter case, the vaccination mark should appear in the personal account on the government services website, after which a QR code will be sent to the buyer's mail.

On average, illegal interference in the federal base will cost a potential buyer 10-12 thousand rubles.

Test purchase

As part of a journalistic investigation, RT employees purchased a fake vaccination certificate through the darknet (shadow Internet).

RT reached out to sellers through popular advertising on the forum: users actively leave reviews about certain sellers.

Since the seller remains anonymous, positive reviews, in fact, remain the only guarantee that the buyer will not be cheated after the transfer of money.

True, you can make a deal with an intermediary, which is usually the forum administrator.

For a fee, this user undertakes not to transfer money to the seller until the service has been completed. 

Also on russian.rt.com "Buyers Can Be Responsible": How the Black Market for COVID-19 Vaccination Certificates Works

Entering personal data into the federal database and a certificate of vaccination from a "verified" seller cost 12 thousand rubles.   

“The certificate itself will be in your public services, and the QR code itself.

It's official.

It will be ready within four days, ”the seller assured, and after completing the order, he asked to write a positive review about it on the forum.

The next day after payment, the entry about "vaccination" really appeared in the personal account on the website of state services, and a day later a QR code came to the mail.

The seller himself said that a real doctor participates in the scheme in one of the regional polyclinics, who enters the buyer's data into the federal register.

Therefore, in addition to money, the buyer is required to provide real personal data: indicate the series, number and date of issue of the passport, SNILS and OMS policy numbers, place of birth.

QR code in exchange for personal data

However, as it turned out, the carelessness of the inspectors in the Moscow public catering makes it possible for citizens to fake the QR codes of vaccination themselves.

A resident of the capital, Yegor A. (name has been changed), told RT that he needed 600 rubles and ownership of a photo editor to forge the code.

Egor generated a QR code for the fake website, and that was enough to get him admitted to three Moscow restaurants.

In another establishment, the code reader was unable to scan the code.

“The restaurant employees had two ways to reveal the fraud: to notice that the domain of the site does not correspond to the official one, or that the QR code translated them into a regular image.

Nobody noticed this, and I myself told them that the code was fake, ”added Yegor A.

On this episode, RT made a written appeal to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin instructed Russian officials and law enforcement agencies to step up the fight against the spread of fake coronavirus vaccination certificates.

“With regard to the topic of fictitious vaccination certificates, then the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General's Office, Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Tax Service and Roskomnadzor will deal with this issue,” the website of the Russian government says.

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The head of the All-Russian Popular Front project "For the Rights of Borrowers", coordinator of the service for combating fraudsters "Moshelovka" Evgenia Lazareva, in an interview with RT, emphasized that the buyer of fake certificates not only risks becoming involved in a criminal case on the acquisition of fake documents, but also losing personal data.

“With such a purchase, a person bears a triple risk: firstly, he can infect other people himself with a serious viral infection, secondly, he can fall under criminal liability, and thirdly, he voluntarily gives his personal data into the hands of fraudsters,” - told Evgenia Lazareva.

So, the interlocutor of RT noted, the SNILS number gives access to a person's personal account on the website of state services, as well as to information about his pension savings.

The phone number will allow fraudsters to call a person pretending to be employees of a bank or credit institution.

“Anyone who sends his personal data in a messenger to such scammers does not understand that tomorrow he may become the owner of a loan for several million rubles.

There are a bunch of online platforms on which, according to certain data, you can take out a loan in your name, ”the expert added.

The fight against the spread of forged documents will be effective if obtaining these certificates becomes a convenient procedure for citizens, Lazareva is sure.

“It is very important that obtaining certificates is a simple and convenient process.

For example, we receive many complaints that people cannot get a certificate if they were vaccinated with a driver's license.

Or the QR code of some of the users is not being scanned.

It should be easy to get a certificate, then people will have a conscious habit of doing everything legally, ”the interlocutor summed up.