Oregon attorney general warns against posting vaccine card photos online

Could make you vulnerable to ID theft

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is warning Oregonians to avoid posting a photo of their COVID-19 vaccine cards on social media.

“Many Oregonians are celebrating their COVID-19 vaccination by posting a photo of their vaccination card on social media. Please — don’t do that! You could be inviting identity theft,” she warned in an email Tuesday.

Your vaccination card can have valuable information on it, including your full name, date of birth, where you got your vaccine, and the dates you got it. When you post it to Facebook, Instagram, or to some other social media platform, you may be handing valuable information over to someone who could use it for identity theft, the attorney general said.

"Think of it this way — identity theft works like a puzzle, made up of pieces of personal information," she said. "You don’t want to give identity thieves the pieces they need to finish the picture."

One of those pieces is your date of birth. For example, just by knowing your date and place of birth, scammers sometimes can guess most of the digits of your Social Security number. Once identity thieves have the pieces they need, they can use the information to open new accounts in your name, claim your tax refund for themselves, and engage in other identity theft.

If you are one of the nearly 1.2 million Oregonians who have already received a COVID-19 vaccine, be sure to safeguard your card by storing it in a safe place. Treat your COVID-19 vaccine card like you would your passport. Do not carry it around with you.

Experts also recommend you take a picture of it with your phone, so you’ll have the information in your photo library, and email the photo to yourself as backup. Remember, don’t share the photo online!

Some experts have also recommended laminating the card, though there has been some concern about lamination because it would prevent information from future booster shots from being added.

For more information on how to avoid becoming a victim of a COVID-19 scam, visit www.oregonconsumer.gov/COVID19. There you’ll find tips on how to spot a COVID-19 scam, links to Scam Alerts, press releases and letters to social media companies like Twitter about the sale of fake vaccine cards.

For more information on how to stay safe online, visit www.oregonconsumer.gov.