Doses of Covid-19 vaccines appear on the "dark web"
A wave of cyber attacks recently targeted the computer vulnerabilities of companies developing a vaccine against Covid-19.
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Text by: Dominique Desaunay Follow
3 min
On clandestine platforms not listed by search engines, cybercriminals discreetly carry out fraudulent transactions in counterfeit products, including so-called Covid-19 vaccines.
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By surfing on our anxieties, the
dark web
which is often used for the illegal trade in arms or drugs is taking advantage of this period of health crisis to increase the number of online sales platforms offering
vaccines against Covid at high prices. -19
.
Even before the first vaccine doses managed by the health authorities were put into circulation, many villainous sites working in the shadow of the hidden face of the web were offering “these counterfeit doses” from November 2020.
Dozens of sites have been listed and some dismantled, alerted the European police agency Europol at the end of 2020.
But scams for fake vaccines are on the rise, indicates the agency, which now recommends the greatest caution to Internet users intending to acquire these falsified pharmaceutical products, the use of which is particularly harmful to health.
A tariff at the head of the customer
A worrying phenomenon which is amplified with the fear of a shortage of vaccines, if the laboratories cannot produce them in sufficient quantity.
Some Internet users would, in fact, be ready to pay crazy sums to get bitten first.
The price of these canister doses, which starts at around 200 euros, can reach a little over 800 euros.
It all comes down to the customer's head and according to the financial appetites of online scammers.
Transactions are untraceable, since payment for products is almost always made using bitcoin virtual currency.
In addition, this kind of purchase in the
dark web
presents an obvious danger of hacking allowing criminals to recover your personal data in order to easily access your bank accounts.
Flash sales to escape the authorities
The owners of these scam sites are well organized to escape the scrutiny of the authorities.
The technique is well established.
Most of the time counterfeiters make quick sales leaving their sites online for only one day to avoid detection.
To bait the barge, some cybercriminals pose as representatives of a research institute with sufficient resources to send doses all over the world.
To be credible, their sites often display the logos of genuine pharmaceutical companies and sometimes those of the World Health Organization.
The advertising to extol their miracle products is carried out with great blow of spam which are diffused en masse on the electronic boxes of millions of Net surfers.
But another problem worries Europol, taking advantage of the vaccination campaigns which are currently starting in many countries, the fraudsters are now seeking to introduce, this time on the legal market, their stocks of adulterated fake vaccines.
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