Three Baltimore men have been accused by federal prosecutors of putting up a fake website to sell Covid-19 vaccines for $ 30 a dose, prosecutors say.
The men, Olakitan Oluwalade, 22, and Odunayo Baba Oluwalade, 25, who are cousins, and Kelly Lamont Williams, 22, each face a charge of conspiracy to commit electronic fraud, the Maryland District Attorney’s Office said on Thursday. .
Prosecutors said the men created a website that resembles that of Moderna, a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which in December obtained federal approval to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine.
The genuine site is modernatx.com, and the man-made site, which authorities have since seized, was modernatx.shop. Prosecutors said the source code for the fake domain showed that its creator used a tool to copy the actual Moderna website.
“The logo, markings, colors and text on the fake domain were visually similar” to the company’s homepage, officials said in a statement. But prosecutors said the fake site had an addition: “YOU CAN BUY A COVID-19 VACCINE BEFORE TIME,” with a link to “Get in touch.”
The men were caught after an undercover agent contacted the number on the fake website on January 11 and set up a transaction for 200 doses of the vaccine for $ 6,000, according to the statement. Authorities said the three men never took any doses.
The agent was instructed to transfer half of the funds to Mr. Williams ‘account with the Navy Federal Credit Union, and on January 15, the agents seized the fake domain and searched Mr. Williams’ home.
Investigators found texts between Williams and his cousins discussing the scheme, according to court documents.
An agent used Williams’s phone to send a message to Odunayo Baba Oluwalade and sent part of the exchange money to his cousins, prosecutors said. Both houses were soon searched as well.
It was not clear how much money men deceived people. A spokeswoman for the US prosecutor’s office said on Friday that she could not provide more details about the charges beyond what was in the statement.
A Moderna representative was not immediately found on Friday.
A lawyer, Richard Bardos, said he had been assigned to the Odunayo Baba Oluwalade case, but declined to comment further, citing a Maryland law that prohibits lawyers from talking about ongoing cases.
Jonathan Van Hoven, Williams’ lawyer, declined to comment. The District Attorney’s Office of the District of Maryland said Olakitan Oluwalade did not yet have a designated attorney.
“While the public is looking for vaccines to protect themselves and their families from Covid-19, fraudsters are hoping to take advantage of their despair,” said James R. Mancuso, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations. “We want to remind the public to be extremely careful online, especially when it comes to vaccines, treatments and protective equipment from Covid-19.”