Germany fears exponential growth in forged Covid passes

The 40-year-old German man shot his wife and three daughters, aged four, eight and 10, before turning the gun on himself. In a suicide note confessing to the killings the man, identified only as Devid R, revealed his motivation: fake Covid-19 vaccination passes.

The teacher from Königs-Wusterhausen, south of Berlin, had created, or bought, fake passes for himself and his wife, which indicated incorrectly that they had been vaccinated against Covid-19.

When his wife’s employer discovered the forgery, prosecutors say the man feared that they would be arrested and lose custody of their children.

Neighbours alerted police after seeing the family's bodies through a window on Saturday, just as German health authorities reported a first drop in fourth-wave Covid-19 cases. They attribute this in part to a de facto lockdown in Germany for unvaccinated people.

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For two weeks access to much of indoor public life in Germany – from shopping to dining – has depended on customers showing a digital vaccine certificate. Authorities hoped this would encourage more people to get vaccinated, but some have chosen another option: gaining access to shops and bars by buying a fake vaccination pass.

German police say they have 6,000 active cases of suspected fake vaccination passes and certificates, with the number rising daily. Berlin’s criminal police (LKA) say they had 11 such cases in May, but now more than 600 – and even that, they say, is just scratching the surface.

Weak spots

And with a surge in Omicron variant cases looming, German vaccine pass forgers are exploiting weak spots in the country’s largely analogue public health administration.

The weakest spot is Germany’s yellow paper vaccination books, which record date, batch number and vaccinating doctor. They are freely available to buy and contain no security features. On the messenger app Telegram anti-vax group members and forgers openly discuss prices – up to €90 – and methods. In one group a forger explains how easy it is to gets the stamps, signatures and real vaccine batch numbers for his clients.

“Despite warnings,there are enough idiots posting images on social media,” wrote one. “I use a laser to make the rubber stamp as I need it.”

The final stage is to bring the fake vaccination pass to a chemist for registration in exchange for a QR-code, which can be scanned into the official Covid-19 app.

Germany’s entire Covid certification process – the key to its fourth-wave restrictions regime – hinges on the country’s chemists. They complain of a huge workload and inadequate assistance in identifying fake vaccine passes.

“The software we use gives us no way of finding out, for instance, if the vaccine batch number in the pass was actually used in the vaccination centre stamped,” said one chemist in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district, who asked not to be named.

Batch numbers

Germany's Paul Ehrlich Institute, which is responsible for vaccines and the digital certificate platform, says chemists can email them queries about batch numbers. That is impractical, say chemists, when a customer is waiting at the counter.

Police around the country have arrested forgers working directly with chemists. Others have found a way to generate QR-codes directly that users can scan into their app.

Prosecutions have been difficult because it was only three weeks ago that Germany changed the law, making it illegal to manufacture and sell forged vaccination passes.

The most prominent case to date involved Markus Anfang, coach of second division football team Werder Bremen, who resigned last month after being caught with a fake vaccine pass.

As tighter restrictions prompt exponential growth in forged vaccination passes, Germany’s federal health ministry says it is an EU-wide phenomenon and “a European solution is currently being co-ordinated”.

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