With the announcement that the Fresno Philharmonic will require proof of vaccination for audience members to attend concerts in the upcoming season, it’s becoming more apparent that even more businesses may soon need to verify vaccination cards.

As anyone who has worked at a liquor store could tell you, it’s not always easy spotting fraudulent IDs.

One Colorado doctor and business owner is on a mission to help companies identify fake vaccine cards.

Dr. Tashof Bernton says there’s a couple ways a business can tell if it’s a real card. First, you need to evaluate logos and make sure lot numbers match. One way to tell a fake is if it’s fully printed. Throughout the country you will only seen handwritten cards — some with stickers.

You also need to make sure the handwriting is different for both cards (or both injection records if they are consolidated on one card). When you receive a non-standard Centers for Disease Control card, you should call the facility that issued it to verify.

This still puts a lot of burden on businesses already trying to confirm cards.

“Businesses have tremendous challenges to do this effectively. With employees and customers all over the country, there’s no way to get 100 percent verification. Potential HIPPA issues are leading companies to work with third parties to verify whether their employees and customers have been vaccinated. But, third party applications like those being run by cities and states only go so far. First, you can only use the application if you have been vaccinated in the state of California (so that leaves workers and tourists traveling from other states) and the pass is only accepted in the state of California so it wouldn’t be officially recognized by another state or country,” Dr. Bernton says.

Dr. Bernton developed a product just before the pandemic called the Immunaband. It’s a bracelet that contains a QR code that links directory to a vaccine record on an encrypted and HIPPPA compliant website. Employers around the country have been working with Dr. Bernton using Immunaband as a third party to help navigate verification issues.