Coronavirus vaccines are available on the darknet from $ 250 to $ 1,200

Sandra Loyd

Kaspersky researchers have examined 15 different markets on the darknet and found offers for three known coronavirus vaccines: Pfizer / BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Moderna. Vendors were also found to offer “COVID19” vaccines from uncontrolled sources for sale

Most of the vendors offered their portraits from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, and the price of each dose was It ranged from $ 250 to $ 1,200, meaning an average of $ 500 per serving. Communication via encrypted messaging applications, e.g. it took place through Wickren and Telegram and the goods were asked to be paid in cryptocurrency, mainly bitcoin.

Most black market sellers made around 100-500 transactions, which shows that they did sell something, but it is still not clear what the darknet users actually bought. Based on the information available to Kaspersky’s specialists, it is impossible to say how many of the vaccine doses offered for sale online are the actual vaccine (as many healthcare facilities have remaining residual doses) and how much fraud is among the offers.

Very it is likely that those who actually received something in the mail did not receive an effective, real vaccine either. But more importantly, getting such vaccines is illegal.

“There’s almost anything on the darknet, so it’s no surprise that sellers there want to take advantage of the vaccination campaign. There have been plenty of scams in the past year. The COVID theme has been used and most of them have been successful. At present, people are not only selling vaccines, but also vaccination cards to facilitate free travel. It is important that users handle all pandemic-related issues with caution. ” great deal “and of course it’s never a good idea to buy a vaccine from the dark,” explained Dmitry Galov, a security expert at Kaspersky.

More information about vaccines sold on the darknet can be found on the Kdaily website.

Kaspersky experts recommend the following to be safe from fraudsters even during a coronavirus epidemic:

  • Never take products – not vaccines –
  • If the coronate If you see an ad related to an article, always carefully examine the URL of the website you are visiting. If even a single letter seems out of place, or if the usual .com ending has been replaced with .com.tk or something like that, your instincts should suggest that it’s phishing. Never enter personal information on such a page.
  • Pay attention to the correctness and layout of both the websites you visit and the emails you receive. If something looks like phishing, it probably does.

About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cyber security company founded in 1997. Kaspersky uses its knowledge and security expertise in Internet threats to continuously develop innovative security solutions and services to provide protection for businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers worldwide. The company’s extensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to combat complex and evolving digital threats. Kaspersky technologies protect more than 400 million users and help 270,000 enterprise customers protect what is most important to them. More information: www.kaspersky.com

The post Coronavirus vaccines are available on the darknet from $ 250 to $ 1,200 appeared first on World Weekly News.