Vaccination slot ‘sellers’ may be targeting online business owners — PNP

MANILA, Philippines — Online business owners may be the primary targets of the scheme where vaccination slots are being directly sold to them for as much as P10,000 to P15,000, said the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday.

PNP Chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said they came to this conclusion after the Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) found no further public posts in all online platforms promoting the sale of vaccinations or vaccination slots.

“Lumalabas sa imbestigasyon ng ACG na iyong sinasabi natin na nagbebenta ay direktang kumokontak sa pamamagitan ng private messages sa kanyang mga balak pagbentahan. Malamang para umiwas na mapansin ng ating law enforcement agencies kung gawing public ang post niya,” Eleazar said in a statement.

(The ACG investigation revealed that the seller only directly contacts potential buyers through private messages. Probably to avoid being noticed by our law enforcement agencies if he makes his post public.)

“Kung titignan natin iyong mga unang inalok ng bakuna at slots sa ating mga LGU, pareho silang may legitimate online businesses. Parehong negosyante na inalok gamit ang direct messaging. Kaya posible na sila lang ang tinarget ng mga scammers,” he added.

(If we look at the people who were offered vaccines and slots, both of them were online entrepreneurs. So it is possible that they are merely being targeted by scammers.)

The PNP chief, however, said that there is still a possibility that this may be politically motivated, “probably employed to discredit the reputation of the LGU involved.”

Eleazar assured that the ACG is continuing its close monitoring and coordination with its local teams and the LGU authorities.

He then urged the public to immediately report to the PNP should they encounter sellers of vaccines.

“Since the illegal sale of vaccine and vaccination slots is being perpetrated via private communication, we encourage netizens who are being targeted by both illegal sellers and scammers to help us in this case,” Eleazar said.

This PNP investigation was started after a viral post on social media showed that they were being offered queues for vaccinations against COVID-19 for P10,000 to P15,000 each.

Eleazar earlier revealed that the police were able to identify one person who offered his high school friend 2 brands of COVID-19 vaccines, priced at P12,000 to P15,500, through a messaging app in an initial investigation.

Meanwhile, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 has warned that selling priority slots for vaccination is a criminal offense.

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JE