As more of people are getting vaccinated, many companies, concert halls, and stadiums are asking many people to show proof that they have gotten their COVID-19 shots.
But the quest for the COVID-19 vaccination card has led to a rash of fake cards turning up online.
Now, California officials and federal authorities are getting involved.
One of the reasons why many are now seeing so many fake cards online is because they are easy to make and they are not that much different from the actual cards.
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California's new attorney general Rob Bonta, along with attorneys general from 38 other states recently sent letters to eBay, Twitter, Shopify and other websites. They are sounding the alarm and asking the websites to remove the fraudulent cards.
"If someone has a vaccine card, it needs to be accurate,” Bonta said. “So, the message is stop immediately, cease and desist, do not engage in these practices, lives and health depend on it."
The FBI is also getting involved. FBI officials say anyone who buys or sells a fake vaccination card could face federal charges including up to five years in prison.
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"The problem with this whole this is there's not a lot of uniformity with these cards, so maybe even finding if they're fake or not will be a really hard task for these social media companies to do," said Matt Cabot, a Cyber Security Professor at San Jose State University.
All the more reason to avoid cards you find online, both for your legal, and medical, protection.
"You can fool the authorities, but you can't fool the virus. The virus knows if you've been vaccinated or not," Cabot said.
