No chance for vaccination pass forgers: Pharmacists check carefully - "Do we owe the vaccinated"

Created: 12/28/2021, 1:18 PM

From: Stefanie Zipfer

Criminal energy in yellow booklets: vaccination cards are being forged more and more these days - especially to get a digital vaccination certificate from the pharmacy.

© Sven Hoppe / dpa

Since the introduction of the 2G rule, the business with forged vaccination cards has flourished.

In Dachau, however, they have little success with it.

There have already been numerous reports there.

Dachau

- If you currently want to go to a restaurant, to sports, to the cinema or to your favorite boutique in the city and district of Dachau, the so-called 2G rule applies: Entry only for vaccinated or convalescent, unvaccinated people must stay outside.

Fake vaccination passports: Little success in Dachau - pharmacists check certificates carefully

In order to get the coveted proof, some people unwilling to vaccinate are currently mutating into counterfeiters.

In order to access the digital vaccination certificates including QR code, which are usually issued by pharmacies on presentation of appropriate proof, they either present false yellow vaccination certificates or alleged medical confirmation letters.

In Dachau they have little success with it, as pharmacist spokesman Maximilian Lernbecher and police spokesman Björn Scheid emphasize.

According to Lernbecher, the pharmacies in the city and district would carefully check to whom they issue the digital vaccination certificate - and consistently report suspicions of counterfeiting.

“We owe that to the vaccinated,” says Lernbecher.

Fake Corona vaccination certificates: Great importance is attached to local reference

Basically, it works for him and his colleagues in such a way that "great emphasis is placed on local reference" when certifying the vaccination records, says Lernbecher. That means: either the pharmacist knows the customer who wants the digital vaccination certificate, or he knows the doctor who issued the alleged proof. In case of doubt, says Lernbecher, "we also call the doctor's office and ask whether the vaccination was actually carried out on the day entered on the slip." The pharmacists also check the batch numbers of the vaccines.

Lernbecher, who has set up two colleagues in his upper pharmacy especially for this topic, does not want to put his customers under “general suspicion” or alienate them. But he emphasizes: “If someone comes from Cologne with an alleged vaccination certificate, then I say: 'Go to Cologne and have it certified there.' I'm not there to issue North German certificates. ”Often the forgers would leave the field voluntarily, for example if you told them that you still have to check the evidence and that the alleged vaccinee should therefore please come back in a few days: “We'll never see them again,” says Lernbecher.

What the pharmacist clarifies on behalf of his colleagues: It is displayed!

It is "a botch in some heads" of certain anti-vaccination groups that pharmacists are not allowed to go to the police due to their duty of confidentiality, according to Lernbecher.

If there is a suspicion of forgery with regard to the documents presented, he even has to contact the responsible police station.

Fake vaccination passports: pharmacists have to report cases - "It's not worth it"

This is also confirmed by police officer Scheid.

Of the 14 vaccination passport counterfeiters who were reported in Dachau this year, eight were reported by pharmacists.

A forger was found exposed in the course of an apartment search in another matter, the rest was betrayed to the police by his private environment.

Scheid emphasizes, however, that there could be far more than the 14 cases on record. The police did not receive any of them until November; the probability that there will be further late registrations is therefore high. The really big fish, i.e. those who commercially manufacture and sell false vaccination certificates, would end up directly with the public prosecutor anyway. Speaking of which: According to Scheid, there is also a suspected case of a vaccination forger on a large scale in the Dachau district. With reference to ongoing investigations, Scheid does not want to go into the facts.

Basically, the police officer emphasizes, the forgeries would almost certainly be exposed.

“It's not worth it,” advises pharmacist Max Lernbecher.

The counterfeiters, who, according to Scheid, come from “all age groups” face “very severe penalties”: These can range from a fine to several years in prison.

“This is not a trivial offense,” said Scheid.

In Kirchseeon, 250 falsified vaccination certificates have now been found in a restaurant.

Read more news from the Dachau region here.

By the way: Everything from the region is also available in our regular Dachau newsletter.