Counterfeiters usurp the identity of real doctors to sell work stoppages at very competitive costs, a heavy loss for Social Security.
By Isabelle Missiaen for Le Point
© Ketty BEYONDAS / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/JOURNAL SAONE ET LOIRE/
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IJust type “sick leave” in the Snapchat search bar to be spoiled for choice, says France Info, which conducted the survey. On this social network popular with younger generations, accounts of counterfeiters offering to provide work stoppages are commonplace. They even offer certificates “signed and stamped by a real doctor”, with “dates of your choice”, sent by e-mail “within fifteen minutes”. All for 15 to 30 euros. Enough to drive doctors whose names are found on judgments they have never signed crazy.
“It’s something very violent,” says one of them, a general practitioner in Paris. In September 2022, he 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. The doctor then discovered that his identity had been usurped and used “throughout France”: certificates in his name had been provided in Lille, Lyon or even Marseille.
A handover
“I had an industrial quantity”, testifies in turn another general practitioner. “No more people who come to the office, thinking that it was me who made the stop. They didn’t understand anything, they think it’s telemedicine. Indeed, when customers contact counterfeiters, they lead them to believe that the sick leave is indeed signed by a real professional.
Some even let the client choose between several health establishments. To further increase confidence, it is sometimes possible to receive the sick leave in person.
In addition to being unpleasant for doctors, who see their identity usurped, this practice has a cost for Social Security. In 2021, it estimated that the damage linked to falsified sick leave amounted to 3.4 million euros over one year.
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