Thousands of fake COVID vaccine cards intercepted by federal agents

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A shipment of fake COVID vaccine cards from China, headed to New Orleans, has been intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Memphis, WVUE reported.

Officers say there were 15 such shipments of low-quality counterfeit vaccine cards. The cards had blank lines for names, birthdays, lot numbers and a CDC logo, but they were riddled with typos, unfinished words and some Spanish verbiage was misspelled.

Some of the shipments had packs of 20, 21 or 100, without any attempt to conceal them.

Memphis has made 121 seizures totaling 3,017 of these cards.

Buying, selling or using a counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination card is a crime, according to the FBI. It can be categorized as the unauthorized use of an official government agency seal. Violators face a fine and up to five years in prison.