The COVID black market

By Yannis Goranitis

The first patient to be hospitalised this year in a Greek hospital ICU due to COVID-19 complications is a 65-year-old Russian man who reportedly entered Greece by presenting a forged PCR test.

That case intensified the concerns of Greek authorities because last year as well they had caught foreign tourists with falsified certificates.

Those cases were mainly at Greece's land borders and almost exclusively concerned travellers from Albania.

This year emphasis will be placed on checks at the Greece-Albania borders as well as on visitors from non-EU countries in general which do not issue electronic (easily verifiable) vaccination certificates.

More intensive checks in Europe

Europol has repeatedly warned all countries' security authorities regarding diagnostic checks of whether someone has fallen ill with COVID-19 or has been vaccinated, given the fact that technology that makes it possible to forge a document, such as high-quality printers and advanced software, is widely available.

Over the last few months Greek security forces have intensified checks and have uncovered an illegal forged documents ring.

There were arrests in the UK (where fake certificates are sold for 100 pounds sterling each), at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and in Spain, where they cost 40 euros.

In Germany, multiple police operations were organised to root out gangs that printed and sold bogus negative COVID-19 test certificates.

Two arrests in Berlin revealed a well-organised network that the used the messaging app Telegram to communicate with prospective clients who paid between 80 and 100 euros for a certificate.

Digital security and printed certificates

In Germany...