Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Web is awash with Covid testing kits
Warning that test kits traded by online sellers may be counterfeit or illegally obtained
THERE’S a thriving black market in Covid-19 test kits being sold via social media sites.
Anyone can now apply for a pack of seven tests free from the NHS, but that doesn’t seem to have dented the secondary market for kits being sold in bulk.
“The sale of these devices for personal gain and profit is not just reprehensible, it is illegal,” said a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman.
“We are working closely with social media sites to ensure any listings are quickly identified and removed.
“People should not buy or use these tests as there is no guarantee they are genuine.”
Among the sellers I found was Vishal Shah of Portsmouth, offering a box of 25 Innova tests for £150 on Facebook.
“I can get more if you want them,” he said when we met.
I then told him that I was a journalist and asked how he had got his hands on them.
“I got them from a relative, he works in medicine, not the NHS,” he replied, but did not take up my request to demonstrate that the tests were acquired legitimately.
Another seller, using the name Gemma White, was selling the Innova box for £100.
Her Facebook account was set up only this year, has no posts or friends visible, and the only photograph is the profile picture of a cat.
I messaged to ask how she’d got the tests and she replied naming Primary Care Supplies.
This established firm did briefly sell Innova kits for £210 including VAT but stopped a month ago.
“It’s very unlikely that anyone selling them for £100 has bought them from us,” said a spokesman.
Another seller using Facebook was offering no fewer than 8,500 Innova tests.
Rajul Patel, from London, said he was a member of a group called PPE UK and would sell boxes of 25 tests at just £37.50.
I asked how he could sell them so cheaply and he replied: “I’m in the
‘‘ I got them from a relative who works in medicine, not the NHS
wholesale market with loads of groups, there’s always people with stock they want to get rid of, gloves, masks, anything.”
Would he name his suppliers?
“I’d rather not,” he replied, adding: “This is not NHS stock, I didn’t get them from the NHS.”
Did he know if his suppliers obtained the stock legitimately?
“I’ve dealt with them many times, so I’m sure they have, and there’s nothing wrong with the stock.”
So it’s not counterfeit?
“No, I don’t think it is,” he said, which wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement.
Innova kits are supplied in the UK by Tried & Tested Limited.
The firm’s joint chief executive Kim Thonger said: “It’s very concerning that people may be buying something from random sites when they have absolutely no way to verify it is what it says it is.
“Quite simply, Innova tests should only be purchased through authorised channels.
“These tests are sold only for professional use.
“We have asked the sites hosting the sellers to remove them as a matter of urgency and we have also supplied the images to the relevant authorities.”
The director of the EU’S policing agency Europol, Catherine De Bolle, reported this week that Covid-19 scams have changed as the pandemic had developed.
“In the early stages we saw a surge in the trade of counterfeit face masks and hand sanitiser,” she said.
“Now we see a rise in the trade in fake vaccines and home testing kits.”