An astonishing traffic has just been updated on Snapchat: for 30 euros, scammers offer false tailor-made work stoppages by usurping the identity of real doctors. An immoral, illegal and dangerous scheme…
Social networks are a place of choice for malicious people, who can develop scams and other illegal methods in complete peace of mind. These are platforms that make it possible to reach a large public, sometimes ill-informed of the dangers of the Internet, and to benefit from a certain anonymity. Fake login pages, fake job offers on LinkedIn, fake contests… All the means are good to make money on the backs of others! The teams of France Info discovered that Snapchat is home to a real traffic of fake stoppages. By typing “sick leave” on the social network, it is easy to come across accounts of counterfeiters, who do not hesitate to advertise their services through stories. They offer certificates “signed and stamped by a real doctor”with “choice of dates” and sent by e-mail “under fifteen minutes”, all for an amount ranging from 15 to 30 euros. Suffice to say that some people are quickly tempted to take a few days off to do the sales or treat themselves to a vacation! Of course, this practice is totally illegal, on the side of counterfeiters as well as health insurance, especially since the doctor who “signed” the document is in fact absolutely unaware.
Snapchat: tailor-made work stoppages for 30 euros
The France Info teams contacted one of the accounts selling fake work stoppages pretending to be a customer wanting a month’s stoppage. The forger asked them for their social security number, the duration of the sick leave, the desired dates and their place of residence – here, Paris. He then finds a doctor located in the area and uses Photoshop to forge the paper work stoppage in a way that reporters found very convincing. There is then only to choose between a delivery in person or by sending. Of course, the doctors whose names appear on these documents are completely unaware of the procedures. Joined by France Info, one of the practitioners testifies: “It’s a horror, it’s a disaster. I had an industrial quantity. More people who come to the practice, thinking that it was me who made the stop. They did not understand anything, they think it’s telemedicine.” Another explains having received several calls from health insurance funds, mutual insurance companies and even employers asking him to confirm the veracity of work stoppages in his name which had been transmitted to them. It was there that he then discovered that his identity had been usurped and used all over France. “It’s something very violent”he laments.
Health Insurance estimates that falsifications of sick leave cost no less than 3.4 million euros in 2021. It asks doctors whose identity has been usurped to file a complaint and inform the CPAM, which may in turn to investigate. For health professionals, these steps are insufficient. If the reports are numerous, they have in reality little chance of succeeding. One of the practitioners interviewed explained that he followed all these steps. Several months after filing his complaint, he finds that “That has not changed. Every day, I have Social Security contacting me to ask me to confirm or deny false work stoppages.” For them, it should “emphasize the remote transmission of judgments, abolish or more strictly regulate the drafting of work stoppages in paper format or via teleconsultation platforms, monitor and control social networks“.
Remember that this type of traffic is far from safe for those insured. Indeed, the CPAM can carry out unannounced checks in order to verify that the person is really at home and is indeed unable to work. In the event of fraud, the insured may be penalized by the suspension of their daily allowances, reimbursement of sums unjustly received, a warning, a financial penalty, or even a criminal sanction (fine and prison sentence). In addition, it is better to avoid giving this type of personal data to dubious people, because it is impossible to know what they will do with it. They can, for example, resell them on the Dark Web and/or use them to usurp their identity…