(Bloomberg) -- European Union police and anti-fraud officials are investigating billions of euros of scam Covid-19 vaccine offers that have targeted governments across the continent.

The EU anti-fraud office, OLAF, has received information from several member states about offers of shots by alleged intermediaries, according to a briefing document seen by Bloomberg. To date, the offers amount to more than 900 million doses with a total price of about 12.7 billion euros ($15.3 billion), the document states.

The investigation by OLAF and Europol was raised by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in a virtual meeting with EU leaders last week. She told the gathering that the attempted frauds almost always followed the same pattern, said a person familiar with the leaders’ discussion.

According to the OLAF report, governments and health authorities have been approached by criminals impersonating intermediaries representing pharmaceutical companies. The so-called intermediaries use websites and social media profiles to give the appearance of being legitimate businesses, and require payment of a deposit up front. Some 92% of the fake offers were for the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine.

“In multiple cases, at the time of the offer the companies involved had already been dissolved, or were managed by persons with a proven criminal record,” the document says. It notes that the vast majority of the offers have been sent via email to central governments.

The report also outlines the risk of orchestrated theft of vaccines at different stages of the distribution process, the possibility that vaccines may be diverted by corrupt officials or medical staff, and that counterfeit or sub-standard vaccines may be circulated on illicit markets.

“A new criminal trend seems to be emerging pointing to targeted fraud attempts affecting public authorities responsible for the procurement of vaccines,” Jan Op Gen Oorth, a Europol spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. “‘Several cases in EU Member States have been recently reported to Europol concerning fraudulent offers (scams) to sell millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines.”

He added that these contracts are “fraudulent attempts to steal money, as none of the offers known today are genuine.”

The law enforcement agency declined to provide details of which countries had been targeted or who was behind the attempted criminal activity, citing operational reasons. The report mentions an ongoing Europol investigation in Italy where an alleged intermediary looking to sell a batch of vaccines to the Umbria region was identified.

Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, Europol has cracked down on similar fraudulent operations involving fake and sub-standard facemasks and other personal protective equipment.

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