By GISSELE GONZALEZ
Staff Writer
A Connecticut man bought a new passport holder on Amazon, only to find a fake Covid-19 vaccine card in his package. Amazon reportedly said they flagged the seller and removed the listing from the platform.
Tammy McDonald, a 53-year-old nurse in Columbia, South Carolina, was indicted by a federal grand jury for making counterfeit Covid-19 vaccine cards. She allegedly filled out vaccine cards for people she knew had not received the Covid-19 vaccine. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, McDonald faces up to 15 years in prison for the fake vaccine cards and five years in prison for lying to federal investigators.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said agents confiscated more than 3,000 fake vaccination cards shipped from Shenzhen, China. The forms had errors, misspellings, unfinished words, and incorrect Spanish translations.
Tips on how to spot a fake vaccination card:
- Missing information normally on the CDC vaccination record card, such as the manufacturer lot number, date, and identification of the vaccine provider
- Misspellings and inconsistent dates
- Thin paper rather than a card
- A card that appears to have been cut with scissors