Californians have filed close to 30,000 complaints with the Federal Trade Commission related to COVID-19 and stimulus payments since last March. Almost 75% involve fraud or identity theft.

"It’s not a stretch to think that attackers are going to be sending mass emails to people saying, 'Click here to purchase a vaccine or vaccines are now available in your area. Click here to download the information for that,'" said Maya Levine, a cybersecurity expert with Checkpoint Research.

She said the number of fake vaccine ads on the dark web is soaring.

"We found that the number of these postings on the dark web have increased by more than 400% and that the price of the vaccines have also increased," Levine said.

Some of the ads tell customers to buy fast and claim to offer free shipping, charging upwards of a thousand dollars for the vaccine. In one transaction, researchers contacted one of the vendors, who requested payment in Bitcoin, which can be much harder to trace.

"And of course, no surprise, never received anything," Levine said.

In an attempt to take advantage of the vaccine shortage, Checkpoint said it’s even seeing some of the fraudsters try to sell vaccines in bulk.  

"One vendor that Checkpoint Research communicated with claimed to be able to sell an order of a total of 10,000 bottles that can serve up to 5,000 people," Levine said.

The Department of Health and Human Services has some bold warnings on its website and said to avoid unsolicited requests to get a COVID-19 vaccines or other related treatments.

"They always take advantage of heightened emotion like fear or desperation because they know that when humans are in that state, they’re much more likely to make a mistake or to make a foolish decision," Levine said.

While most of us await our dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, health and security experts said stay alert and keep a healthy dose of skepticism.