California’s acting attorney general is among the officials sounding the alarm about fake COVID vaccine cards being sold online.
Matthew Rodriquez is one of the signatories of a letter sent this week by the National Association of Attorneys General to OfferUp, a marketplace site similar to Craigslist.
“Allowing users of your platform to market and sell fake vaccine cards is a threat to residents of our states,” says the letter, which then demands that OfferUp remove such posts and retain information about the people who are selling the cards.
The letter comes 10 days after a similar one that the attorneys general association sent to Twitter, eBay and Shopify about fake cards marketed on their platforms.
A spokesperson for OfferUp said Wednesday that the site’s administrators “actively remove” posts offering fake vaccine cards, usually taking them down within an hour.
The latest letter was signed by the attorneys general of 39 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the Virgin Islands. The 11 states not represented are Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.
Government officials and agencies including the Department of Justice also issued statements last summer condemning the distribution of “mask exemption cards” that falsely implied businesses and employees asking the bearer to wear a mask would face heavy fines under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Rodriquez has been California’s acting attorney general for a month, since Xavier Becerra became U.S. secretary of health and human services.
— The Boston Herald contributed to this report.
