NEW YORK (AP) — The Senate’s top Democrat says federal law enforcement officials need to crack down on fake COVID-19 vaccination cards being sold online.
Sen. Chuck Schumer’s announcement Sunday comes after The Associated Press reported how people are cheating the system and buying counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards online, worrying officials at colleges and universities across the country that are requiring proof students received the vaccine to attend in-person classes.
Schumer is demanding U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the FBI team up with officials from the Department of Health and Human Services to launch a crackdown on the counterfeit cards and start a campaign to make clear that forging the cards could land people in federal prison.
He also wants the Justice Department to immediately prioritize cases involving fake vaccine cards and is pushing for Customs and Border Protection to work harder to find counterfeit cards being sent from overseas.
Federal agents have already seized thousands of fake vaccine cards this year. Customs and Border Protection officers working in Memphis seized another shipment earlier this week — sent from Shenzhen, China and headed to New Orleans — that contained dozens of fake cards, officials said.
The FBI had issued a joint statement with the Department of Health and Human Services in March urging people not to buy, create or sell fabricated vaccine cards. The unauthorized use of the seal of an official government agency is a federal crime that carries a possible fine and a up to five years in prison.
© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
No, Chuckie—call for a Federal crackdown on vaccine cards—PERIOD!
You must have been in a hurry, Chuck—there’s no American flag backdrop in your photo. We all know what a great patriot you are—cough—cough.
HELL< let's call for a crack down, on the BLOODY FAKE CDC!
Fake vaccine cards? Don’t be crazy. My name is Bo Biden and my vaccine card is as legal as my voter registration card. In Delaware . . in Washington DC .. in Califormia .. .. in Illinois. . .in New York . . .in Massachusetts . . in . ..
What peeves me off, is for DECADES ANY time a republican dared ask for voter ID, the left harangued him (figuratively) for being “RACIST”, cause “Blacks are too stupid to get ID’s>
YET THOSE SAME FOLKS are now demanding everyone, INCLUDING BLACKS, get these ID’s, and NOT ONE WHISPER of “its racist”!
chucky is a fool.
Tell us something we already didn’t know.
If he does get his way, heaven forbid, will the crackdown start at the Southern border where each entriant will be required to have their card ready? Of course not, this rule applies only to legal American citizens and anyone coming into the country for legitimate reasons!
You need do a check on fake/stolen Green Cards, Social Security numbers and Drivers Licenses first.
Wait.. I thought years ago, the dems (under obama), made it OK FOR ILLEGAL INVADERS TO STEAL and thus forge US ID’s.. When they downgraded it from being a felony to a misdemeanor.. SO ARE THEY NOW SAYING Having fake papers are back to being a felony?
OR ARE They saying only THIS FAKE papers, are a felony!??