Tips by the police How to recognise forged vaccination certificates

Düsseldorf · Fringed holes, bent staples and other pen colour: The police explain how to recognise forged certificates and what to do in case of doubt.

 Vaccination certificates are being forged more and more frequently.

Vaccination certificates are being forged more and more frequently.

Foto: dpa/Martin Schutt

For days, police reports about fake vaccination certificates have been piling up. Several people had recently tried to get digital certificates in pharmacies with the help of fake vaccination cards. In some cases, the pharmacists were able to recognise the forgeries and notify the police. Police therefore urge people not to post copies of vaccination certificates on social media. "Often document forgers use the batch numbers of such photos to forge their vaccination cards," the police explain.

How to recognise fake vaccination cards from the police's point of view:

Vaccination interval: According to the Wuppertal police, most forged vaccination cards contain two vaccinations with Biontech. As a rule, the vaccination interval for MRNA vaccines such as Moderna and Biontech is three to six weeks; for a vector vaccine, the vaccination interval can be up to twelve weeks. Often the intervals in fake ID cards are not correct. It is therefore essential to pay attention to the first vaccination date.

Who vaccinated? GPs have only been vaccinating since the beginning of April. In the vaccination card, there is a corresponding practice stamp for a vaccination. And if a stamp should be from March, something could be wrong. "Therefore, if in doubt, you should ask where the person in question was vaccinated," say the police. It is also not uncommon for forged passports to have two different doctors entered - and then often from different districts. "This is because it is often a case of stolen doctor's stamps - sometimes from practices that no longer even exist," say the police.

Inserted pages: The vaccination cards are stapled. By opening the staple, an original page of another vaccination card can be inserted. "Bent staples or frayed holes can be an indication that the passport was once taken apart," says the Wuppertal police.

Colour of the pen: According to the police, forged vaccination passports are usually sold with insufficient content. For example, a doctor's signature is present, but the date is not. "This must then be added by the buyer," say the police. For this reason, it is essential to check for any deviating writing characteristics or pen colours.

Labels: Attention should be paid to this. The labels now have a watermark; the vaccine from Moderna has a 2D code. It is important to check the labels for this. For example, the labels for documenting vaccinations with the Biontech vaccine have a watermark. This can be seen in the background of the batch number as a scattered print.

However, it is more difficult to check labels that were initially printed by practices and vaccination centres because the above-mentioned features are missing. (Original text: Christian Schwerdtfeger / Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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