It’s easy when you know how.
A graphic designer in Kerry was left outraged after being asked to make fake HSE vaccination cards.
The Brand Geeks on Twitter revealed that someone has asked them to forge the vaccination cards to allow them and friends to attend indoor dining.
Taking to Twitter, they wrote: “To the person asking us to print 250 of these cards so they’ll be able to dine indoors with friends, the answer is NO!!
“It does show how flawed it is that these are proof of vaccination @MichealMartinTD.
To the person asking us to print 250 of these cards so they'll be able to dine indoors with friends
, the answer is NO!!
It does show how flawed it is that these are proof of vaccination @MichealMartinTD
Anyone could copy these, the whole thing is a joke! #COVID pic.twitter.com/uXAkBUhx02— The Brand Geeks 🤓 (@thebrandgeeks) July 1, 2021
“Anyone could copy these, the whole thing is a joke! #COVID.”
Clearly shocked at the request, their anger didn’t end there as owner Chris McGillycuddy revealed to BreakingNews.ie that they had never seen anything like it before.
Chris said: “We were shocked just to get the call, we were thinking ‘God, it’s just mad’.
Those who are fully vaccinated will be getting digital Covid certs from Monday, but when it comes to plans to reopen indoor dining, it is unknown if you need to be vaccinated to be let in.
The government are also issuing letters to those fully vaccinated that will act as “passports” instead of a vaccination card.
But in their current for, vaccination cards are very easy to recreate by a graphic designer, with Chris explaining that anyone who knows how could easily manipulate them.
He told Her.ie: “It is so simple to recreate the artwork and it is just printed on regular card. This means that it would be incredible simple to forge. Any of the print assets are freely available online if you knew where to look.
“The main reason I tweeted was because I was so surprised at the neck of someone to think that we would do it in the first place.”
With the template on the HSE’s website, it’s a lot easier to recreate these cards.
Chris told BreakingNews.ie: “The print assets are available on the HSE website, so it’s not like you wouldn’t be able to, a graphic designer could do it in 10 minutes. Obviously we wouldn’t even think of doing it, but it would be a simple job to do.
“The point of us sharing the tweet was just to highlight the issue, you go to so much trouble getting your vaccines and getting your two shots and then at the end of it all you have is a slip of paper. It’s almost the equivalent to giving somebody a business card and saying ‘there you go, you’re good to go now’.”
