Before launching, Maxime made sure that the parade was working.
"Frankly, they hardly looked", reassures him, at the beginning of April, his half-brother, once on the plane.
The computer engineer no longer hesitates.
He gets to work, integrates one of his old negative tests into a paid application, the date of which he changes.
A few details, a final rereading, and voila.
"In ten minutes, I had made a fake," he says, relaxed.
It is because between the labs closed on Sunday, the bank holiday, he was only able to take his test 24 hours before his trip to Corsica.
What if he doesn't arrive on time?
Since then, Maxime has "helped out" five relatives, from his mother-in-law to his group of friends. For their trip to Santorini in two weeks, everyone will have their home-made certificate. “I think it's pretty commonplace. In my entourage, Parisians who live in London do it every weekend when they come back to avoid paying 100 pounds (115 euros), the price of a PCR test there. By presenting his faked certificate to the flight attendant, the engineer will be "as natural as possible", just like when he goes to the pool with a bogus prescription. No need for sophisticated software: old tests are faked with a filter on Instagram or with a simple word processor like Word. This is what Mathieu did
(the first name has been changed)
.
"I needed it to have my operation in the hospital and it went smoothly", testifies this entrepreneur.
Tweaked tests in a few clicks
“We made free tests available, in most cases delivered in less than 12 hours and despite everything, some take the risk of spreading the virus. What frustration! »Deplores François Blanchecotte, president of the National Union of Biologists. The problem is far from new. Already in October, when the labs were saturated, the airlines were surprised at a strange merry-go-round at the counter. Passengers turned back for lack of screening reappeared an hour later with a test in hand. How was this possible? "We realized that traffic had taken place in the terminals, a team was selling fakes for 200 euros to panicked travelers," explains Julien Gentile, director of the border police at Roissy-Charles- de-Gaulle and Le Bourget.
Read also Coronavirus: traffic in false negative test certificates dismantled at Roissy
After its dismantling, this traffic would not have reappeared.
But how many are they to pass, each day, with a hack test in a few clicks?
“The real figure, nobody knows it, admits the commissioner.
These counterfeits cannot be detected, except when they are gross.
“Only two to three passengers are taken into custody each week.
For "use of forgery", they risk a lot: up to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.
The question also arises upon arrival in France.
For security, travelers coming from countries deemed to be at high risk of forgery are again tested on the descent of “targeted flights”.
50 euros the fake on Snapchat
With the future European health pass and its secure QR code, it should be much more difficult to free the line. “These certificates will be compulsory as soon as they come into force at the end of June. As with future identity cards, they will be impossible to falsify ”, assures us the Directorate General of Health. "What is crazy is that the authorities did not immediately think of QR codes," said Virginie, in her fifties, herself a fraud. Before flying to Venice, for lack of time and to avoid the inconvenience of the swab in the nose, she created two tailor-made screenings.
"Lots of girlfriends do it, my children too on the advice of their mother," she laughs.
She even converted her “boss”.
"His schedule was overloaded, he had to go on a trip so I offered to rig him a test, he was delighted," says this employee of a multinational.
Wasn't she afraid of getting caught?
“A little the first time, but at 7 am, the lab was closed, in case of doubt, no one could have checked.
And then, a lot of times, control comes down to a glance.
On a sheet "Considering the number of passengers, they don't have time to do more!"
"
The pass and its QR code, the parade?
More security, that's what the president of the Union of Biologists was waiting for. The case is not, however, so simple. "This health pass with a QR code will be valid everywhere in Europe and it was therefore necessary that all the countries coordinate, it takes time", comments, understanding, François Blanchecotte. A delay that left the field open to schemers. On social networks, some even make it a lucrative business. By typing "Covid test", on Snapchat, where the messages are erased after 24 hours, guaranteeing not to leave any trace, many suspicious accounts have appeared. On the pretext of an imminent departure for Greece, we sent a message and, three hours later, one of them replied: "It is at 60 €, now I do it (
sic
) at 50 €. "
The counterfeiter who contacted us claims to work in a medical analysis laboratory. He has reportedly been providing an average of five false per day since the start of the year. Once paid by PayPal transfer, he ensures that he only needs some personal information to produce the document. Has he already found the solution to the health pass? In his exchange full of mistakes, he promises "a QR code". In reality, it is not the one that makes it possible to check the authenticity of a test but of another, smaller. Sometimes present on a corner of the analysis report, this pictogram is only used internally by laboratories. Counterfeiters play on confusion, but when the secure certificate is generalized, "this type of scam will be impossible", certifies Commissioner Gentile.
