So far no scams with vaccination cards in Freising: "We watch out like the lynx"

Created: 12/29/2021, 8:00 AM

From: Helmut Hobmaier

5000 vaccination passports have so far been certified in the Engel pharmacy in Lerchenfeld alone.

There has not yet been an attempt at fraud.

© Sophia Kembowski / dpa

Fraudsters who come to pharmacies with forged vaccination cards are apparently avoiding Freising.

There's a good reason for that.

County

s - The number of falsified vaccination records has recently increased dramatically: In Bavaria alone, the State Criminal Police Office is investigating more than 3000 cases.

Freising seems to be an exception here: in her pharmacy, no customer has presented a fake, reports Ingrid Kaiser from the Engel pharmacy in Lerchenfeld - and that with a good 5000 vaccination pass certifications.

And Kaiser, the spokeswoman for the pharmacies in the district, asked around and found out: “This also applies to the other pharmacists in Freising.” But they currently have completely different concerns.

Pharmacist trained by the police

The 2G rule has meant that more and more forged vaccination passports have emerged in Bavaria as well.

They were then presented to pharmacies in order to obtain a digital certificate.

“This has never happened to us,” says Ingrid Kaiser, “and we watch out like the lynx.” In addition, the police are now very well trained to recognize forgeries.

For example, any vaccination card that does not contain anything other than the corona vaccination is suspect.

Normally, some other immunizations are also attested in every vaccination card, such as the tetanus vaccination.

Batch numbers are checked

The pharmacists are also always informed about the batch numbers of the vaccines currently being vaccinated and compare them with the vaccination passports presented.

The cooperation with the district office also works excellently here.

The fact that the fraudsters evidently steer clear of the Freising pharmacies is explained by Kaiser with the special customer structure: "We have our regular customers and know almost everyone who comes to us." Pharmacies in large cities are more likely to be the target of vaccination card fraudsters .

In the event of an emergency, the police will be informed

In the event that a customer presents a forged vaccination certificate, the procedure is clear: "Then we will inform the police." does not share Kaiser. The risk to society from a false vaccination certificate is clearly to be rated higher than data protection.

Andreas Martin, a criminal lawyer from Erding, emphasizes, however, that “it is currently quite unclear legally” whether pharmacists are violating confidentiality when they hand over the forger to the police.

At the moment it is left to the pharmacists themselves to “weigh up the risk”.

For society, if a vaccination forger is not prosecuted, or for yourself, if you should make yourself a criminal offense.

According to Martin, the Supreme Court or the legislature must give a direction as quickly as possible in order to take the pharmacists out of the gray area.

(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

Pharmacist Kaiser and her colleagues are currently facing another challenge: "There are now a wide variety of combinations of vaccinated and recovered people who come to us." People who have been vaccinated twice or three times or those who have recovered with one or two vaccinations.

"It is important that it is absolutely correct in the digital vaccination certificate," emphasizes Kaiser.

Otherwise there might be problems with recognition, for example in the case of crossing the border.

Kaiser: "You have to be very careful."

Important: Note all first names in the passport

It is also particularly important that the names in the vaccination certificate and identity card are identical.

If, for example, a first name is omitted from the vaccination certificate - Anna instead of Anna Maria, for example - it can no longer be identified as valid.

"That's why I even have regular customers show me their ID cards so that I can transfer all my first names," reports Ingrid Kaiser.

Vaccination centers and doctors also have to pay close attention to this.