Anti-vaxxers charged after selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards on Instagram

It may not be surprising that an Instagram user going by the handle @AntiVaxMomma is an anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist.

What may shock you, however, is that this person was raking in good money selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards on the Facebook-owned social media platform.

Jasmine Clifford, a 31-year-old woman from New Jersey, was charged in a Manhattan court on Tuesday with felonies related to a scheme to sell fraudulent versions of authentic CDC COVID-19 vaccine documents to unvaccinated people.

@AntiVaxMomma’s personal Instagram page advertised her fake vaccination card business right in her bio.
Credit: mashable screenshot

Some U.S. cities, such as New York City, will soon require that individuals be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to enter restaurants, movie theaters, and other businesses. Many employers are also requiring vaccines for their workers as well.

In order to avoid taking the jab, anti-vaxxers and other COVID-19 deniers have resorted to buying fake vaccination cards, creating a new lucrative blackmarket for the fraudulent documents.

Fifteen other people who were involved in the scheme were charged as well, including people who purchased the cards.

Just last week, @AntiVaxMomma received public attention on social media after a TikTok video by user @tizzyent unveiling her vaccination card scheme went viral.

Tweet may have been deleted

Clifford openly advertised the fake vaccination cards for $200 on her @AntiVaxMomma Instagram page. When that page was shut down in May, she quickly got her business back up and running using a new handle: @AntiVaxMomma2.

Prosecutors say Clifford sold around 250 cards through Instagram. Buyers paid using CashApp or Zelle.

In her Instagram post advertisements, the New Jersey woman offered unvaccinated individuals “real cards, real lot numbers, real vaccination sites” according to an Instagram Story post. Lot numbers are a combination of letters and numbers used to track individuals to the specific vaccination batch they received.

Having this information helps add legitimacy to the fake cards. Unvaccinated people trying to pass off cheap knockoff vaccination cards have recently been caught due to their obvious illegitimacy. For example, a woman was arrested for traveling to Hawaii using a fake vaccination card with the Moderna vaccine misspelled as “Maderna.”

Clifford also advertised that she could get their names added to the New York immunization database for an extra $250.

But Clifford was able to offer this particular service thanks to Nadayza Barkley, a 27-year-old medical clinic worker in New York, who has also been charged. Barkley aided in the vaccination card scheme by entering at least 10 names of unvaccinated individuals into the New York immunization database.

By doing this, an unvaccinated individual would add an extra layer of legitimacy to their fraudulent document. For example, this information is checked when a person attempts to set up their digital vaccination card on the NY State Excelsior Pass mobile app.

According to @tizzyent, he exchanged messages with @AntiVaxMomma on her personal Instagram account, @5StarJazziii, after she posted that she was looking to “expand her team.” She specifically mentioned that she was looking to work with people who had access to computer access at hospitals or major pharmacies.

@TizzyEnt’s text message conversation with @AntiVaxMomma
Credit: mashable screenshot

In a series of screenshots in @tizzyent’s TikTok video, Clifford offers up details of her deal with Barkley under the belief that he would help her expand her services to Florida. Clifford claims she paid Barkley $100 per person and that she was making up to $10,000 per week.

While @tizzyent’s TikTok video was an eye-opening investigation for the public, the Manhattan DA’s office claims that it did not aid in the case as Clifford had been under investigation for her scheme since June.

But just as worrying as those who are profiting off of these fake COVID-19 vaccination cards is who is buying them.

Prosecutors have charged 13 people who bought fake vaccination cards from @AntiVaxMomma with “criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.” These individuals all appear to be frontline healthcare workers at hospitals and nursing homes.

In a statement provided to BuzzFeed, Facebook said it took action against Clifford’s Instagram account, removing it early last month.

The social media giant says the sale of vaccination cards, real or fake, on its platforms are prohibited.

The Department of Justice has recently started to amp up its crackdown on fake vaccination card schemes. A Chicago pharmacist was arrested and charged last month as well for selling 125 vaccination cards on eBay. More than 3,000 fake vaccination cards were confiscated by federal authorities last month in Alaska as well.