For the first time, the federal government is announcing figures on how many Covid vaccination certificates have been counterfeited in Switzerland. A case from Zurich shows how the system worked.
Vaccination certificates shaped everyday life in Switzerland during the pandemic. Not all of them were real.
Freedom is sinfully expensive. When the woman from Winterthur picked up her cell phone a week before Christmas 2021, she wanted one thing above all: to eat in restaurants again and celebrate in bars and clubs. But the young woman has a problem. She is unvaccinated and therefore does not have a Covid vaccination certificate.
And the Federal Council just announced bad news on December 17th. The measures against the corona virus are being tightened again for fear of overloading the hospitals. Only those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered have access to restaurants, cultural, sports and leisure facilities.
The young woman therefore types in the contact of an intermediary. In the chat, she orders a Covid vaccination certificate for herself and three other people. Then she sends him the personal details and the next day the requested amount. It’s 3,400 francs – for four forged documents and the freedom to party again.
But she’s unlucky: the provider doesn’t deliver as agreed, and shortly afterwards the woman from Winterthur also has the Zurich authorities on her neck.
Thousands of forged documents were in circulation
The young woman is one of many. Because the Covid vaccination certificate, which was essential for visiting restaurants, museums or concerts in Switzerland for months, is considered to be forgery-proof. Nevertheless, thousands of people who should not have received it also received it.
The weak point was the human. Employees of vaccination and test centers, pharmacies or medical practices used their access and their criminal energy to create certificates for unvaccinated people.
Numbers collected by the Federal Office of Public Health show how well business with counterfeit Covid certificates has been in Switzerland for months. Since mid-February 2022 alone, 10,300 fraudulently issued vaccination certificates have been canceled nationwide. The federal government did not collect the numbers further back.
The actual number of counterfeits is therefore certainly higher, since some cases of misuse that have become public are not included, as the Federal Office writes on request. In addition, the marked differences in the cases detected in the individual cantons suggest that a large number of illegally issued certificates remained undiscovered.
Compared to the millions of documents created, the abuse rate is relatively small. However, this was a lively and lucrative trade for the criminal masterminds. Whether in Vaud, Geneva, Zurich or Schaffhausen – law enforcement authorities have started investigations into forged certificates everywhere in Switzerland in recent months.
In the canton of Zurich, for example, around 200 illegally issued certificates have so far been discovered, as the health department writes on request. In addition, the authorities are aware of a number of other illegal exhibitions, but police investigations are still ongoing.
Investigators can identify suspected masterminds
An anonymous complaint started the case in which the 30-year-old woman from Winterthur was involved. In addition to some buyers, the Zurich public prosecutor’s office was also able to identify several masterminds, including the alleged main perpetrator. The public prosecutor’s office is conducting criminal investigations against a total of nine people.
The system worked like this: the orders went through an intermediary to the main perpetrator, who maintained contacts with people who could issue vaccination certificates. The fraudsters demanded up to 850 francs per vaccination certificate. In many cases, the counterfeit documents circulated in this way actually worked.
The young woman has now been convicted by means of a penalty order – for inciting multiple forgery of documents. For this she received a conditional fine of 120 daily rates of 140 francs each. The young woman accepted the verdict, and the penalty order became final at the beginning of June. However, the proceedings against the alleged masterminds have not yet been completed.
Fake certificate for work
The situation is similar in other cantons – for example in St. Gallen. The largest counterfeit affair to date was exposed there last December. The suspected counterfeiters worked in private test centers and thus had access to the national system for issuing certificates. According to the authorities, a total of 9,000 certificates were illegally issued.
According to a report by the “St. Galler Tagblatt», the public prosecutor’s office in the canton of St. Gallen is conducting around twenty criminal proceedings against people who are suspected of having illegally produced or brokered certificates. The alleged criminal offense: forgery of documents. In addition, there are several hundred proceedings against buyers. According to the law enforcement agency, some of these have already been completed with a penalty order.
As in the case of a 49-year-old Thai woman who was recently sentenced to a conditional fine and a fine in a penal order. The woman made her purchase in mid-November 2021 — at 1 a.m. She got the fake certificate from a friend.
She had previously offered to get her the document. She sent the woman her first and last name, her date of birth and her personal transfer code. She later gave the agent 500 francs in cash. The girlfriend then forwarded the data to the counterfeiters. Later, the 49-year-old also ordered a certificate for her boyfriend.
The Thai woman not only used the document in her free time. Because the service specialist also had to show the Covid certificate at work.
New system to prevent abuse
Criticism of the federal government arose shortly after the first reports of forged certificates. The cantons felt let down by the federal government. The Aargau health authorities spoke of an intolerable situation. At the end of last year, the St. Gallen authorities stated in a statement that the federal government had been repeatedly informed that the IT system for issuing certificates had significant shortcomings and made it possible for too many people to issue illegal vaccination certificates.
The federal government has now responded to pressure from the cantons and introduced a new authorization system. This in view of the fact that the certificates could be used again in the event of a possible wave in autumn or winter.
With the new system, the cantons can decide for themselves who is allowed to issue vaccination, convalescence and test certificates. For example, test centers can only issue certificates for negative tests. Those who have recovered must apply to the federal government for their document themselves – unless the laboratory sends the certificate directly after a positive test result. In the canton of Zurich, vaccination certificates can only be issued using the VacMe vaccination tool; it is no longer possible to do this manually.
In this way, the authorities hope to be able to curb trade in counterfeit certificates in the future. However, there is one thing they will not be able to prevent: that dubious sellers who never intend to issue such certificates will offer fake certificates in Internet forums.