Receiving several thousand euros in reimbursement for health costs that you have never benefited from seems like an attractive boost. Alas, it is, as expected, a scam in which it is not recommended to dive. For several months, scammers have been using social networks to spread a new kind of fraud. And anyone who participates risks heavy criminal prosecution.
The principle is biblically simple. By means of a simple Word or Excel file, counterfeiters create from scratch a false invoice from a dentist’s office, an optician or any other professional. And offer you to benefit from 3,000, 4,000, 6,000 euros in reimbursement for your glasses or your dental operation. So many services which the insured concerned have never actually benefited from. “Come in private, there is a minimum of 400 euros to scratch in three days max”, promises one of them on his Snapchat account, reports The Parisian.
Identity theft
To make the maneuver as credible as possible, the scammers usurp the identity of real professionals before sending the false document to the mutual insurance companies of the people concerned. “Given the flow of documents they receive, mutuals cannot check all the invoices,” notes Maxence Bizien, director of the Agency for the Fight once morest Insurance Fraud (Alfa). The counterfeiters also do not hesitate to claim from the targeted customers a significant amount of personal data ranging from their identity document to the connection identifiers of their mutual session.
Some individuals wishing to supplement their end of the month may then be tempted to participate in the scheme and receive the promised sums. Or rather half since scammers usually claim half of the winnings. And beware of those who do not intend to respect the deal. “Fraudsters can go so far as to threaten policyholders. And tell them ‘if it goes wrong, I know where you are, I know your address. And I can also take out consumer credit in your name'”, adds Maxence Bizien.
Criminal penalties of up to five years in prison
This holding of personal information by these scammers is also cause for concern given their presumed profile. “These are people who make a living from criminal activity. So isn’t the personal data of policyholders at risk of being resold on the darknet? We don’t know anything regarding it”, underlines Maxence Bizien. As for their favorite geographical area, difficult, once more, to see very clearly. “We assume that they are rather in the Paris region. Because many false invoices have been made on the backs of dentists or dental surgeons from Île-de-France”, however, enlightens Maxence Bizien.
Finally, the game turns out to be particularly perilous for the curious who would plunge headlong into fraud. The penalties provided for what is considered complicity in insurance scams are particularly severe and can reach five years in prison, accompanied by a fine of 375,000 euros.
