An Instagram user known by the handle @AntiVaxMomma has been charged by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office after selling about 250 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to health care workers.
Her arrest comes after a TikTok video exposed her scheme.
via Complex:
Jasmine Clifford, 31, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, has been charged with selling fake cards, while 27-year-old Nadayza Barkley of Bellport, New York, has been charged with entering at least 10 buyers into NY’s NYSIIS database, according to NBC New York.
“We will continue to safeguard public health in New York with proactive investigations like these, but the stakes are too high to tackle fake vaccination cards with whack-a-mole prosecutions,” District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement. “We need companies like Facebook to take action to prevent the fraud happening on their platforms.”
From looking into the @AntiVaxMomma account, the DA’s office is charging 13 people with buying fake cards, some of them being nursing home workers and hospital employees. The cards reportedly cost $200, with an extra $250 being charged for database registration. Clifford and Barkley are facing felony charges related to “false instruments and misdemeanor conspiracy charges,” NBC shares.
Just last month, a Florida couple was arrested in Hawaii for using fake cards to enter the state without having to go through a 10-day quarantine. Enzo Dalmazzo, 43, and Daniela Dalmazzo, 31, reportedly had cards made for them and their kids, who were both under the age of 12, despite the vaccine having yet to be approved for them at the time.
Also in August, Border Protection officers in Memphis were revealed to have made 121 seizures totaling 3,017 fake vaccine cards since the start of the year.
Arrest them ALL.
