Kommersant: the data of 500 thousand buyers of fake vaccination certificates were put up for sale
Data of more than 500 thousand Russians from the Moscow region, who bought fake vaccination and PCR certificates, put them up for sale on shady Internet resources and Telegram channels. Kommersant writes about this on Friday, November 12.
As one of the sellers told the publication, a base of one thousand lines costs 120 dollars (about 8.5 thousand rubles). It contains passport data, SNILS, telephone numbers, residential addresses, as well as information on the dates of obtaining certificates. Evgeny Antipov, a programmer and owner of the Eye of God Telegram channel, explained that the databases contain data from the compulsory medical insurance of Russians, the cost of information about one person is about 30-40 rubles.
According to Antipov, the information was collected in the services themselves, offering to make a fake vaccination certificate or PCR. Ashot Hovhannisyan, the founder of the DLBI data leak intelligence and monitoring service, believes that the creators of such sites themselves can sell their clients' data. In addition, he suggested, fraudsters can use customer data to blackmail them. “Taking into account the fact that it is proposed to increase the responsibility for the use of fake QR codes to criminal, this may become a new gold mine for fraudsters,” the specialist admitted.
Vadim Solovyov, head of the information security threat analysis group at Positive Technologies, suggested that fraudsters could offer services to remove Russians who bought fake certificates from such databases or create services where people can check their data for leaks. “It would be naive to believe that attackers will be attentive to your personal data if you applied for an illegal service,” noted Alexander Dvoryansky, Strategic Communications Director at Infosecurity a Softline company.
Previously, information security experts warned of the possibility growing number of sites that specialize in selling fake QR codes. In their opinion, the strengthening of control over the availability of QR codes by the state will provoke a sharp increase in demand among Russians and, as a result, an increase in supply. In addition, the sale of fake vaccination certificates is gaining popularity.
Honored Lawyer of Russia Ivan Solovyov warned that criminal liability for acquiring a fake vaccination certificate could come under Part 3 of Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It provides for punishment in the form of restraint of liberty, forced labor or imprisonment for up to one year.