Australian Institute of Criminology has released a report, which suggests that Darknet vendors are selling what they claim to be the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients.
According to the report, researchers from Australia National University (ANU) revealed that cybercriminals are exploiting the pandemic by peddling hundreds of COVID-19 related products on at least 20 different darknet markets. These products include alleged vaccines, repurposed medicines, diagnostic tests, personal protective equipment (PPE) and, perhaps most troublingly, the “plasma” of patients who were previously infected with the virus.
Researchers from the ANU’s Australian Institute of Criminology made the discovery while looking at how cybercriminals are exploiting the health crisis by selling antiviral drugs, items of personal protective equipment (PPE) and, in some cases, what they claims is human blood.
According to the research, PPE such as masks, sanitisers and HAZMAT suits accounted for two-thirds of all listings, with one user asking for more than $1700 for 10,000 ‘lab tested face masks’.
Lead researcher Rod Broadhurst said the blood would be used to inject someone who may be at risk of the virus.
Mr Broadhurst said: “The word I think is passive vaccination, where the blood plasma of a recovered Covid-19 patient is harvested for the antibodies and that is then used to inject into someone who may be at risk of Covid-19.”
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said she has been “personally horrified” by some of the alternative treatments advertised on social media and other informal online platforms.
“People should be very careful when posting or perpetrating information without fact checking it first,” she said.
Dr Chant urged Australians to follow public health advice and exercise caution around any treatments not approved by a professional health body.
“They are a lot of therapies that have been put forward to treat COVID-19. I would urge people to go to the facts and thoroughly investigate, talk to your health practitioner before doing anything that contradicts with traditional health advice.”
The dark web is a layer of the internet which can only be access through certain browsers and is not indexed by search engines, it is often used by criminals to set up online marketplaces for illegal items.
