The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) urged European Union countries to be on the lookout for scammers offering to sell bogus COVID-19 vaccines at a time when the 27-nation bloc faces delays in the administration of the same.
OLAF has received reports of scammers offering to sell fake vaccines to EU governments trying to speed up the pace of vaccinations, the agency said in a statement Monday.
“For example, scammers could offer to sell large quantities of vaccines, hand over a sample to get the first advance payment, and then disappear with the money,” said Ville Itälä, OLAF director general.
“They could deliver fake vaccine packages,” Itälä added. “Or they could falsely claim to represent legitimate companies and possess or have access to vaccines. All these claims have one thing in common: they are false. ”
The EU has been criticized for a slow distribution of COVID-19 vaccines compared to other parts of the world, such as Britain and Israel. The EU commission has signed six contracts for more than 2 billion doses of various coronavirus vaccines, but so far only three of them have been approved for use and the delivery of vaccines has been interrupted by a delay in its manufacture.
OLAF’s message is similar to a warning from Europol, the EU law enforcement agency, which in December noted the risk of organized crime scams linked to COVID-19 vaccines, including the possibility of criminals trying to sell dangerous fake vaccines or steal shipments of real vaccines.
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