How to Detect Fake Vaccine Passport Apps That Steal Your Data
From a policy point of view, the use of vaccine passports remains unclear. There is no official, federally recognized “vaccine passport” in the US, but companies are already working on passport apps for vaccinated people who want to travel or attend major events. Subsequently, the fuzzy state of the vaccine passports gives scammers the opportunity to steal your personal information, which is why the Better Business Bureau issued a warning about fake apps.
What to look for
There are several legitimate apps that are already in use. New York State has launched the Excelsior Pass program, which uses the government’s vaccine registry to confirm vaccination status, and airlines such as American Airlines and JetBlue also use apps to confirm negative COVID tests on flights.
However, since the White House has moved away from the use of vaccine passports, we probably won’t see a single, centralized application that will be used by all Americans. Instead, we’ll likely see a growing patchwork of apps created by private companies for local or national use. But it will also make it harder to identify fake apps that are run by scammers, so you should be extra careful with your personal information and check if the app is legitimate.
With this in mind, the Better Business Bureau provides the following tips:
- Be skeptical about any vaccine passport application that claims to be owned by the US federal government. The US federal government has no plans at this time to create a national vaccine passport . Emails, calls and text messages claiming that the government requires such a passport are likely fraudulent.
- Are you flying or attending an event? Contact the company directly. You may need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test or vaccine result in order to attend an event or board a flight. As with everything related to COVID-19, the rules change frequently. Be sure to check with your airline, sports team, event venues, etc. in advance for the latest information.
- Research carefully . If you receive an invitation to download the COVID-19 Vaccine Passport App, be sure to review the information before entering your personal information. Scammers are very creative, so be skeptical about anything that seems too good or crazy to be true. Double-check any information with official news sources and company websites.
- Take care of your government-issued numbers . Never offer your Medicare ID, Social Security number, health plan information, or banking information to anyone you don’t know or trust. Do not post the vaccine map on social media .
- Think the link could be real? Double check the url. Fraudsters often buy official URL domains in order to use them for their own purposes. Be careful to make sure that the recipient of the link is indeed what it was claimed to be. If the message is allegedly sent by a government, make sure the URL ends with .gov (for the US) or .ca (for Canada). If in doubt, do a separate website search on the Internet or call the source directly.
If you spot a scam, please report it to BBB.org/Connectracker .