Dark Web Marketplaces and COVID-19: The vaccines

The ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign has so far targeted a less than 2% of the world population, and even in countries where the campaign has started many citizens will not receive their doses for many months. There is clear evidence that previous shortages of COVID-19 related goods (e.g., masks and COVID-19 tests) and services pushed customers, and vendors, towards illicit online trade occurring on dark web marketplaces. Is this happening also with vaccines? Here, we report on our effort to continuously monitor 102 dark web marketplaces. By February 6, we found 22 listings offering a COVID-19 vaccine. Three listings offer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, one listing the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, and three listings a fabricated proof of vaccination against COVID-19. Several listings appeared before the summer of 2020, and can be deemed as scams. Illicit trade of uncertified COVID-19 vaccines poses a concrete threat to public health and risks to undermine public confidence towards vaccination.