Several Florida counties have turned to Eventbrite, a service best known for booking spaces for conferences, sporting events and a series of personal meetings, to help distribute vaccines to residents. After hearing about this effort in Sarasota County, Bourbonniere searched and found similar vaccine inscriptions in his own county at Eventbrite. But there was a problem: his county was not actually among those who used the platform to register.
“I found the Sarasota site and used the location button to reach events close to me,” Bourbonniere, who told CNN Business, found numerous listings in Clearwater, Florida, a city in Pinellas County. . He then tweeted to the Florida Department of Health, Pinellas County, asking why there were “74 Eventbrite ads for the Covid vaccine” in Clearwater, many of which were sold out, despite the conflicting information on the county website.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office told CNN Business that it is currently investigating the fraudulent use of Eventbrite for COVID vaccines in Pinellas County, adding that it appears the pages have been removed.
In a statement to CNN Business, an Eventbrite spokesman said: “We are actively exploring how our platform can better support the effort to increase access to vaccines. We are aware of unofficial lists of vaccine events in “We believe these events were created by mistake and have been removed from our site. We are continuously monitoring and taking appropriate action.”
When asked why Eventbrite believed the events were created in error and how many were removed from their site, the spokesman declined to comment beyond the statement.
But the approach to vaccine distribution in Florida seems to have created an opportunity for bad actors to defraud residents with fraudulent health department listings, both in locations that use Eventbrite for vaccine distribution and in areas that are not. . It is unclear who is behind the listings and what their motives are. But at the very least, it only adds potential for further misinformation and confusion about vaccines and their distribution.
The Florida Governor’s Office and the Florida Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment from CNN Business.
Like other online platforms, Eventbrite has had to struggle for a long time with bad actors trying to trick users. When Eventbrite prepared to go public in 2018, the company warned in its IPO procedures that “we have experienced fraudulent activity on our platform in the past, including fake events in which a person sells tickets for to an event but does not intend to hold one or fulfills the ticket “.
At least three of the counties that use Eventbrite for vaccine distribution (Pasco, Collier and Sarasota) have recently acknowledged scams on the platform.
According to Chase Daniels, executive director of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, “it handles approximately a dozen complaints sent to us by the Pasco County Health Department regarding fake pages that provide fake vouchers to people,” noting that there was no exchange of money. “The investigation into these fake vouchers is still ongoing,” Daniels said.
Aside from concerns about fraudulent listings, some Florida residents, including senior residents who may be less tech literate, are now left browsing the digital ticketing platform in hopes of reaching one of the few places vaccinations available.
After Khalid El Khatib’s 77-year-old father was unable to get an appointment with the vaccine through Eventbrite in Sarasota, it became a family affair. Khatib told CNN Business that he and his two sisters signed up to receive notifications to Eventbrite in hopes that an appointment could be reached between all four when the next wave of distribution opens.
The Khatib compared it to how one could try to get tickets for “a popular concert,” unless there is so much more at stake.
“The only way I can get information is by being an educated, young, and relatively connected New Yorker,” El Khatib said, speaking extensively about coronavirus safety measures. “I think it speaks to the inequality that appears through all stages of this pandemic.”
Bourbonniere, a retired doctor-level nurse specializing in geriatrics, described herself and her 68-year-old husband as a retired engineer with a chronic state of health, as quite knowledgeable about the technology. But within the community of more than 65 years where he lives, Bourbonniere said there have been mixed messages about how to register for the vaccine, which can confuse residents most vulnerable to Covid and most vulnerable to misinformation.
“That’s what worries me,” he said.