Several counties in Florida have turned to Eventbrite, a service better known for booking venues for conferences, sporting events and a variety of personal gatherings, to help distribute vaccines to residents. After hearing of such an attempt in Sarasota County, Bourbonniere sought and found similar vaccinations for events in Eventbrite. But there was a problem: her country was not actually one of those who used the platform for registrations.
“I found the Sarasota website and I used the location button to get to events near me,” Bourbonniere said, telling CNN Business that she was on numerous listings in Clearwater, Florida, a city in Pinellas County, came down. She then tweeted to the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County to ask why there were “74 Eventbrite offers for Covid vaccine” in Clearwater, many of which sold out, despite conflicting information on the state’s website.
The Pinellas County sheriff told CNN Business that they are currently looking into the fraudulent use of Eventbrite for COVID vaccinations in Pinellas County, adding that the pages have apparently been removed.
In a statement to CNN Business, a spokesperson for Eventbrite said: “We are actively exploring how our platform can best support efforts to improve vaccine access. We are aware of unofficial entries of vaccine events on Eventbrite. We believe these events were created in error and removed from our site. We are constantly monitoring and taking appropriate action. “
Asked why Eventbrite believes the incident was created incorrectly and how much it was removed from the site, the spokesperson declined to comment further.
But the patchwork approach to vaccine distribution in Florida has apparently created an opportunity for bad actors to deceive residents with fraudulent health departments, both in locations that Eventbrite uses to distribute vaccines and in areas that are not. It is unclear who is behind the presentations and what the motives are. But at the very least, it only adds to the potential for greater misinformation and confusion about the vaccines and their distribution.
The Florida Gov. and the Florida Department of Health did not respond to CNN Business’ requests for comment.
Like other online platforms, Eventbrite has long struggled with bad actors trying to mislead users. When Eventbrite was ready to announce in 2018, the company warned in its IPO paperwork that ‘we’ve experienced fraudulent activities on our platform in the past, including fake events in which someone sells tickets for an event but does not intend to is to hold an event or fill out the ticket. ‘
At least three of the provinces that Eventbrite uses to distribute vaccines – Pasco, Collier and Sarasota – have recently admitted fraud on the platform.
According to Chase Daniels, executive director at Pasco Sheriff’s Office, it ‘works’ about a dozen complaints sent to us by the Department of Health- Pasco County regarding fake pages that provide false evidence to individuals,’ while emphasizing that there is no exchange was not of money. “The investigation into the fake vouchers is still ongoing,” Daniels said.
Aside from concerns about fraudulent offers, some Florida residents, including older residents who are less technically literate, are now about to explore the digital ticketing platform in hopes of landing one of the limited number of vaccination sites.
After the 77-year-old father of Khalid El Khatib could not get an appointment with Eventbrite in Sarasota, it became a family relationship. El Khatib told CNN Business that he and his two sisters signed up for Eventbrite notices in the hope that one could make an appointment between the four when the next distribution wave begins.
El Khatib compared it to how you could win tickets to a ‘popular concert’, except with much more at stake.
“The only way I can get information is to be a trained, young and relatively committed New Yorker,” El Khatib said, speaking broadly about coronavirus security measures. “I think it speaks to the inequality that emerges through every stage of this pandemic.”
Bourbonniere, a retired doctoral-level nurse specializing in geriatrics, described herself and her 68-year-old husband, a retired engineer with a chronic health condition, as technically proficient. But within the 65-year-old community where she lives, Bourbonniere said there are mixed messages about how to register for the vaccine, which confuses residents who are more vulnerable to Covid and more vulnerable to misinformation about it.
“That’s what worries me,” she said.