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An Instagram user by the name of @AntiVaxMomma has been officially charged by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office after attempting to sell nearly 250 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to health care workers, Complex reports.
Two suspects have been identified in connection to the bizarre crime, including 31-year-old Jasmine Clifford who is said to have been in charge of selling the counterfeit cards, along with Nadayza Barkley, 27, who schemed alongside Clifford to enter 10 buyers into the New York state NYSIIS, NBC New York notes.
“We will continue to safeguard public health in New York with proactive investigations like these, but the stakes are too high to tackle fake vaccination cards with whack-a-mole prosecutions,” District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement. “We need companies like Facebook to take action to prevent the fraud happening on their platforms.”
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Reports state the DA Office has also charged 13 people for attempting to buy the fake vaccination cards, some of the individuals being nursing home workers and hospital employees. The faulty cards reportedly cost the suspects $200 to purchase along with an additional $250 for them to be recorded into the database registration. Clifford and Barkley are facing felony charges related to “false instruments and misdemeanor conspiracy charges,” NBC added.
Facebook has since removed the problematic account from Instagram. The DA office added that it will continue to search for all criminals who are suspected of potentially creating the fake cards.
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