2024-02-28 04:59:28
A site offers fake medical certificates for €19. We tested this site and exposed this false certificate to Christian Gaber, labor auditor in Liège.
In today’s online world, it seems there are no limits to what one can purchase on the Internet. But recently a particularly dangerous practice has emerged: the sale of false medical certificates.
Billed as a medical certificate specialist, the site offers a questionnaire that asks a series of questions regarding symptoms.
You must then determine the number of days of absence and the reference city yourself. Payment is made via credit card. After a 5 minute countdown, the certificate arrives in the mailbox. With a beautiful blue stamp, mentioning in this case the University Hospital of Liège, the city that we have chosen.
“There isn’t even the Inami number”
If the certificate appears to be true, a few pieces of information may give some clues. “It still seems quite a crude site, we can see that it’s poorly translated, there are things that don’t mean anything”explains Christian Gaber, Liège labor auditor.
According to him, “we immediately suspect that it is something fraudulent”. The doctor’s Inami number is missing, for example. “There is a semblance of a signature, a scratch and there is not even the doctor’s Inami number”he continues.
In addition, the certificate received is in Dutch and therefore unusable in Wallonia. For him, no doubt, “if you present this to your employer or your mutual insurance company, it may already have no effect, they will realize directly that it is a fake”.
Up to €48,000 in fines
This type of forgery can result in a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and €48,000 in fines. “For example, if you present it to your employer to justify an absence due to illness, the penalty is from one month to five years”, specifies Christian Gaber. That’s not all since “if you use it with your mutual to benefit from health insurance benefits, the prison sentence is six months to three years but there is also a fine of 4,800 to 48,000 euros”.
For the listener of the work, the game is clearly not worth the effort: “At best you lose 19 euros, at worst you end up with a criminal record and for your next job it will be much more difficult”. He therefore urges people to avoid this type of fraud and to favor legal methods to justify their absences.
health medical certificate
1709102463
#site #sells #fake #medical #certificates #fraud #risky #expensive