The demand for fake COVID-19 vaccine cards is skyrocketing in the wake of the new federal mandate to vaccinate or test weekly. That's according to a cyber security company who has been studying the trends online since January.

President Biden said "we're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers." That announcement set off a rush for some who don’t want to get vaccinated to instead try to buy proof of vaccination.

“After President Biden released his mandate last week, there was an exponential increase in activity,” said Brian Linder, the emerging threats expert for Check Point Research. His company has been watching trends online with fake COVID-19 vaccine cards all year.

Once only available on the dark web, Linder said that’s now changed. “Effectively we saw a move away from more corner pockets of the internet where these fake vaccination cards were being sold to a true consumerization.”

Linder shared examples his company collected, including one where someone was offering to sell a “CDC vaccine card for $200.”

"I think the jumps from August even until September tenth were tremendously fascinating and unfortunate because some people are quite desperate to get ahold of these cards, one way or another,” Linder said.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently discovered multiple shipments containing over 3,000 fake vaccine cards all bound for different United States cities.

Here in Utah, 2News Investigates went through state documents and found a Utah pharmacist lost his license for giving a woman a COVID-19 card without administering the vaccination. In state records, he defended himself saying he was giving the woman “a choice.”

He admitted “to having given out completed COVID vaccine cards on other occasions.”

“We absolutely do take this serious,” said Andrea Martinez, the Acting United States Attorney for Utah. She said just having a fake card in your possession is a crime.

Potential charges could be anything from wire fraud to fraudulent use of a government seal. And it could land you in federal prison.

“Those cases will be investigated by various agencies and referred to our office,” Martinez said.

As more vaccine requirements and mandates go into place in the Beehive State, Martinez said taking the risk just isn’t worth it.

“It is not in anyone’s interest to possess a fraudulent vaccination card," she said.

2News reached out to the Utah Attorney General’s Office, who said being in possession of a fake vaccine card would also be considered a violation of state law.

If you know or suspect someone of using, selling or buying a fake COVID-19 vaccine card you can report them to U.S. Health and Human Services, Office of Investigator General at 1-800-HHS-TIPS.