The Green Pass costs 100 euros… On Telegram

The Green Pass costs 100 euros… On Telegram

Telegram's stardom has increased exponentially in the last few months of the Covid-19 pandemic. But, among the many qualities of the cloud-based instant messaging and broadcasting service, we must report the exponential increase in groups with fraudulent and scam purposes. Among these, thanks to the mandatory vaccination passport (the so-called "Green Pass") for some activities also in Italy, now there are also channels that would sell Green Pass defined as "original". What is it about?

Just search with the in-app engine to find a series of groups and channels, whose names always lead back to the Green Pass and Italy. The best known, also reported by Punto Informatico, Wired and so on, is “Greenpass Italia”. The channel proposes to sell, for a few hundred euros, the original and functioning vaccination certificates.

A screen from the Telegram channel that sells Green Pass The channel has about 2000 subscribers, increasing, and the last July 17. However, it has actually only come into operation since last Sunday, 25 July. Three messages were shared by the authors, presenting costs and “packages”, methods of purchase and availability of the daily passes available. Requests are processed within 48/72 hours and must be made by 6 pm. Further information is entrusted to a Telegram contact, such as VeronicaTranelli, and to the FAQs.

The FAQ gives us more information on why authors offer this service. According to them, the obligation to vaccinate an entire population is equivalent to a dictatorship, while the need to resort to alternative payment methods (it is possible to buy Green Passes only with cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin or Ethereum, or with gift vouchers from third party sites) it is necessary to preserve their privacy. The sensitive data necessary to draw up the Green Pass should be "destroyed" immediately after the operation. Our suggestion is obviously not to turn to these channels, which are illegal as well as potentially fraudulent, but rather to get vaccinated consciously, after consulting your doctor and informing yourself about the institutional channels.

To deepen the relationship between epidemics, climate change and humanity we suggest reading the essay Spillover, by David Quammer.