Instagram User ‘AntiVaxMomma’ and 14 Others Charged for Fake Covid Vaccine Card Scheme

Robyn Beck/Getty Images

A New Jersey woman who goes by the Instagram handle @AntiVaxMomma has been charged in Manhattan with selling hundreds of fake Covid-19 vaccine cards through her social media page.

Jasmine Clifford was charged on Tuesday by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office with having sold roughly 250 fake vaccine cards over Instagram. Nadayza Barkley, a woman employed at a New York medical clinic, was also charged in the conspiracy for allegedly entering at least 10 people into the state’s vaccinated database.

According to the DA’s office, Clifford charged $200 for the cards while Barkley charged an extra $250 to register them into the database.

Clifford and Barkley were among 15 charged in total. The other 13, some of whom were hospital workers are accused of purchasing the fraudulent cards.

“We will continue to safeguard public health in New York with proactive investigations like these, but the stakes are too high to tackle fake vaccination cards with whack-a-mole prosecutions,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement. “We need companies like Facebook to take action to prevent the fraud happening on their platforms.”

While Clifford has been under investigation since June, according to a spokesperson for district attorney’s office, a TikTok video that called attention to the scheme went viral earlier this month.

@tizzyentHow many claiming to get vaccinated are putting us all at risk? #covid19 #vaccine #vaccinepassport #fraud♬ original sound – TizzyEnt

“How many claiming to get vaccinated are putting us all at risk?” he captioned the video, which detailed the alleged scheme Clifford advertised to her hundreds of thousands of followers.

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