Interpol has warned that organised crime groups are attempting to defraud governments by offering fake Covid-19 vaccine deals.
According to Cyber News, the warning was issued after at least 60 cases in 40 countries worldwide were identified where people in the health system had received offers to purchase vaccines.
The publication noted that threat actors have been pretending to represent a vaccine manufacturer or a government agency facilitating the distribution of vaccines. Interpol stated that scammers have been targeting the professional and personal email accounts of potential buyers.
The organisation said that legitimate vaccine manufacturers had informed Interpol that fraudsters also used fake social media accounts and websites to disguise as vaccine producers.
Interpol has encouraged agencies and business to contact the police even when targeted organisations manage to avoid being scammed.
Interpol secretary general Jürgen Stock said, “As we see with cybercrime, usually it is the private sector which has the most information about attacks and trends, which is exactly what has happened with these attempted vaccine scams.”
Interpol recently urged police agencies and industry partners to unite to prevent a possible ransomware pandemic from taking hold.
On this topic, Stock claimed the best tactic to disrupt a seemingly never-ending stream of ransomware attacks is to adopt the same international collaboration strategy that is used when fighting terrorism and organised crime.
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