A new kind of scam ... After the hospitals, targets of thieves of FFP2 mask and bottles of hydroalcoholic gel, it is the turn of pharmacies. This Friday, the police from the police station of the XIIth district, in Paris, were trying to solve a scam mounted on the background of coronavirus.
Wednesday, the manager of the Pharmacie Nouvelle de Lyon, rue de Lyon, took the road to the police station to file a complaint for scam. Her mishap dates back to March 4.
"I made a transfer, it was the error"
On this day, the pharmacist receives a phone call. At the end of the line, a man presents himself as a salesperson of a large pharmaceutical laboratory. He offers the merchant FFP2 masks and bottles of hydro-alcoholic gel that "luckily" he "has just returned". “I was out of stock, regrets the pharmacist. We're under pressure. The guy seemed to me to conform. " The trader orders 1000 masks and 600 bottles of gel for the tidy sum of € 5,376. "I made a transfer," he laments. It was a mistake. " Delivery was scheduled for March 6 or 7. The order will not arrive.
"Unfortunately, in recent weeks, our profession has been the target of scammers," confirms Jocelyne Wittelvrongel, secretary of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF). "We had pharmacists approached by ghost labs and a scammer who managed to hijack one pharmacist's Siren number to defraud another."
Always flights to the hospital
In the hospital, the mask crisis is still going on. This Thursday, the AP-HP (Public Assistance - Paris Hospitals) deplored a flight. A representative of the Necker Enfant Sick Hospital, rue de Sèvres (15th) went to file a complaint. The hospital was relieved of 4,000 surgical masks.
The thief or thieves probably operated last weekend. The masks for children were stored in the reserve of the birth room, which is accessed by digital code. This last investigation was entrusted to the police station of the 15th arrondissement.
"The AP-HP however tries to secure as much as possible its reserves in all the hospitals", is surprised Aglawen Vega, general secretary of the CGT Cochin, which deplores besides that "the personnel is pointed out".
Since the start of the virus, the AP-HP has already deplored more than 11,000 masks stolen from several Parisian hospitals. Last week, 4,000 masks disappeared at La Pitié-Salpêtrière (13th century) and Cochin (14th century).
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In Cochin, "they padlocked the reserves, added grids and organized a one-stop shop so that the staff could pick up the equipment and the pharmacy in one place," explains the union member. Result? “There is the tail. All this makes the atmosphere tense terribly ”.