Vandals covered Whitley Bay's seafront in graffiti which claimed that the coronavirus is a 'scam-demic'.
The culprits are thought to have struck over the weekend, targeting a board on a building site near the former Deep nightclub.
The vandal scribbled 'Covid 19-84 plan-demic resist!' in large black letters.
North Tyneside Council staff were forced to spend part of Monday washing off the graffiti at a cost to the taxpayer.
An Oxford University study in May found that more than a fifth of Brits believed the coronavirus was a hoax.
That's despite the UK's grim death toll, which has since exceeded 46,000.
Globally, there have now been over 20 million confirmed cases of the virus since it emerged earlier this year.
Despite the devastation it has caused to people's lives and the economy, there is a growing undercurrent in society which believes that, at the very least, Governments have exaggerated the threat posed by the virus.
On Saturday, an anti-mask protest was held at Grey's Monument while a separate study - by King's College London and Ipsos MORI - found most people in Britain are opposed to the coronavirus vaccine being mandatory, should scientists successfully develop one.
Part of that distrust has been linked to an abundance of 'fake news', especially that found on social media.
A study by Ofcom found that almost a quarter of adults admitted reading a story online, which claimed gargling salt water cured Covid-19.
And that same study found 40% of people admitted they couldn't really work out if what they were reading was true or not.
A North Tyneside Council spokesperson confirmed the graffiti has since been removed.
