Several Florida counties have turned to Eventbrite, a service best known for booking seats for conferences, sporting events and a series of face-to-face meetings to help distribute vaccines to residents. After hearing about such an effort in Sarasota County, Bourbonniere searched and found similar vaccine inscriptions in his own county on Eventbrite. But there was a problem: her county was not really among those using the registration platform.
“I found the Sarasota website and used the location button to reach events near me,” said Bourbonniere, who told CNN Business that he found several ads in Clearwater, Florida, a city in Pinellas County. She then tweeted at the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County to ask why there were “74 Eventbrite listings for the Covid vaccine” in Clearwater, many of which were sold out, despite conflicting information on the county’s website.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office told CNN Business that it is currently analyzing the fraudulent use of Eventbrite for COVID vaccinations in Pinellas County, adding that the pages appear to have been removed.
In a statement to CNN Business, an Eventbrite spokesman said: “We are actively exploring how our platform can best support the effort to increase access to vaccines. We are aware of unofficial lists of vaccine events at Eventbrite. We believe these events were created in error and remove them from our website. We are continuously monitoring and taking appropriate action. “
When asked why Eventbrite believed the events were created in error and how many were removed from its website, the spokesman declined to comment beyond the statement.
But the patchwork approach to vaccine distribution in Florida appears to have created an opportunity for malefactors to trick residents with fraudulent health department listings, both in locations that use Eventbrite for vaccine distribution and in areas that are not. It is unclear who is behind the listings and what the reasons are. But at least it just adds potential for further misinformation and confusion about vaccines and their distribution.
The Florida Governor’s Office and the Florida Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment from CNN Business.
Like other online platforms, Eventbrite has long had to deal with malefactors who try to trick users. When Eventbrite prepared to go public in 2018, the company warned in its IPO paperwork that “we have had fraudulent activities on our platform in the past, including fake events where a person sells tickets to an event, but does not intend to hold an event or fill out the ticket. ”
At least three of the counties that are using Eventbrite to distribute vaccines – Pasco, Collier and Sarasota – recently recognized the scams on the platform.
According to Chase Daniels, executive director of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, he is “working on about a dozen complaints sent to us by the Pasco County Health Department about fake pages that provide fake vouchers to individuals,” while emphasizing that there was no exchange of money. “The investigation of these fake vouchers is still ongoing,” said Daniels.
In addition to concerns about fraudulent listings, some Florida residents, including older residents who may be less tech savvy, can now surf the digital ticket platform in hopes of getting one of the few vaccination sites available.
After Khalid El Khatib’s 77-year-old father failed to secure an interview with the vaccine through Eventbrite in Sarasota, the issue became a family affair. El Khatib told CNN Business that he and his two sisters signed up to receive notifications on Eventbrite in the hope that, out of the four, one could make an appointment when the next wave of distribution opens.
El Khatib compared that to how you can try to get tickets to “a popular concert”, but with a lot more at stake.
“The only way to get information is to be an educated, young and relatively connected New Yorker,” said El Khatib, speaking widely about security measures against the coronavirus. “I think it shows the inequality that is emerging at each stage of this pandemic.”
Bourbonniere, a retired doctorate-level nurse specializing in geriatrics, described herself and her 68-year-old husband, a retired engineer with a chronic health problem, as very tech-savvy. But in the community over 65 where she lives, Bourbonniere said there were conflicting messages about how to register for the vaccine, potentially confusing residents who are more vulnerable to Covid and more vulnerable to misinformation about her.
“That’s what concerns me,” she said.