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Photo: Z1018 Ralf Hirschberger / dpa
Countries around the world are desperately trying to get vaccines against the coronavirus - and scammers apparently sense their chance.
According to the EU anti-fraud authority Olaf, several EU states have so far reported offers from dubious dealers over 900 million vaccine doses.
Their total value amounts to 12.7 billion euros, a spokesman for the authority told SPIEGEL.
He thus confirmed a report by the Reuters news agency.
Earlier on Thursday there was talk of 400 million doses of "ghost vaccine" being offered.
The "Bild" newspaper reported that a private intermediary had offered numerous governments 100 million doses of the vaccine from the British-Swedish manufacturer AstraZeneca by email alone.
A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health confirmed that the federal government had received a number of offers of "different seriousness" from private vaccine brokers in recent weeks.
At Olaf, it is assumed that the number of dubious offers that do not come directly from the manufacturers will continue to increase.
The Olaf spokesman said it was all fraud.
The corresponding vaccines either do not exist, or they are fakes.
The main concern - that counterfeit vaccines were bought and administered to humans - has not been confirmed so far.
"We have no evidence that authorities or private individuals would have fallen for such an offer," said the Olaf spokesman.
This is not surprising: the fake offers are easy to spot for officials of national authorities who are familiar with the procurement of vaccines.
In addition, before the vaccines were delivered, Olaf had held training courses for employees of national agencies in order to prepare them for possible attempts at fraud.
Similar incidents had already occurred in the initial phase of the corona pandemic: Fraudsters tried to do business with counterfeit protective masks or disinfectants.
Olaf had also publicly warned against fraud with vaccines and a certain scam in mid-February.
"Fraudsters could offer large quantities and deliver a sample to collect a deposit," said Olaf General Secretary Ville Itälä.
"Then they disappear with the money."
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