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Chicago officials have confiscated more fake COVID-19 vaccination cards at O’Hare International Airport. For the second time this month, only this time they seized over 40 counterfeit cards on Sept. 27, 2021.
According to officials, these cards were found by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inside two packages from China. They discovered the fake vaccine cards at the International Mail Facility in Chicago.
The official report disclosed that the packages were labeled as holding greeting cards. However, they found 21 fake COVID-19 vaccine cards in one package and 20 in the other.
The director of field operation for the Chicago Field Office, LaFonda Sutton-Burke, explained that these fake vaccination “cards are putting the American population in danger with every card they produce.”
Ordering and producing these cards is illegal and the only reason this is being done is to make a quick dollar, when getting the vaccination is free.
The counterfeit cards are very similar to the real U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) certificated given out by health care providers. Discrepancies and the “low-quality appearance” of the cards made the workers notice they were fake.
The packages were being mailed to a residential address in Houston, Texas, and Bartelso, Illinois.
On August 31, officials discovered a package from China destined for an individual in Ohio with 19 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards. Steve Bansbach with the U.S. Customs and Border protection described why they open packages in Chicago and other International Mail Facilities, “We opened the package to ensure that the items inside were deemed admissible in the United States.”
This parcel was immediately suspected to be suspicious due to the misspellings on the package. Upon opening the parcel custom agents found the 19 counterfeit vaccination cards.
Chicago is not the only place finding these fake cards. Custom agents discovered 1,500 counterfeit cards in Memphis, Tennessee, and Alaska.
According to Bansbach, “From Oct. 1 of last year to Aug. 13 of this year, Memphis has seized 3,017 counterfeit COVID cards.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has already warned the public that possessing fake COVID vaccination cards violates federal law. This violation is a punishable offense. Possessing these fake cards places people at risk because that the person holding the fake cards is not actually vaccinated.
Written by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
NBC 5 Chicago: More Fake COVID Vaccination Cards Seized by Chicago Officials
WGN 9: Fake COVID-19 vaccination cards confiscated at O’Hare; by Julian Crews
Insert Image Courtesy of Sheena Robertson
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of yuan2003’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License