Ride the Lightning

Confusion About Vaccine Registration Fuels Online Scams

March 25, 2021

On March 24, The Washington Post (sub.req.) reported that online scams promising anxious folks a vaccine are escalating according to a report from researchers at cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks.

In the three months since the first vaccines became available in the United States in December, researchers saw a 530 percent increase in scams attempting to steal personal data by posing as websites offering vaccines or vaccine appointments, sometimes pretending to be vaccine manufacturers.

The research, which measured through February, shows that hackers are using the confusion and frustration which surrounds vaccine registration to entice victims.

“The process of signing up and getting registered for a vaccine shot is different from place to place. And they look different,” says Ryan Olson, vice president of threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks. “It’s easy enough for an attacker to make something that looks pretty legitimate when you’re not sure what to expect.”

In one scam identified by researchers, scammers set up a fake website that claimed to represent vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech. The page asked users for Microsoft Office 365 login information to allegedly sign up for the vaccine.

Of course, you can’t get the vaccine directly through the vaccine manufacturers, but many people don’t know that.

The Federal Trade Commission has “received numerous complaints about vaccine scams,” FTC spokeswoman Juliana Gruenwald wrote in an email. Most were email or text message-based scams in which attackers posed as government agencies or healthcare providers claiming to offer vaccine appointments in order to steal personal information and passwords. Consumers reporting the scams say they were asked to provide personal information such as Medicare information, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

Data-stealing scams in which hackers pose as pharmacies and hospitals to trick consumers or employees also rose by 189 percent between December 2020 and February 2021.

It’s a con man’s paradise out there. John and I have been asked repeatedly by confused friends to provide legitimate links to vaccine distribution sites here in Virginia. Confusion over the vaccine registration and appointment process is rampant. Beware!

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225|Fairfax, VA 22030
Email:  Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
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