19-year-old from Freiburg collects 5.7 million euros with fictitious corona tests – “it was far too easy”

Created: 2022-06-02 15:52

By: Sina Alonso Garcia

In Freiburg, a 19-year-old requested 5.7 million euros for a fictitious corona test center from the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.

Only a few days later, the money was transferred to his account.

Freiburg - It sounds almost unbelievable, but that's exactly what happened in Freiburg: A 19-year-old outwitted the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) Baden-Württemberg with just a few clicks and captured 5.7 million euros.

Since his father runs corona test centers himself, he knew how easy it was to charge large sums of money to the KV.

As he reports to the

, the idea for the scam came up during a boozy evening in a Freiburg pub with his friends in the summer of 2021.

They didn't believe him that the KV can really be outwitted that easily, as reported

.

The day after the pub get-together, the 19-year-old sat down at the computer, apparently spurred on by his friends' incredulity, and got to work.

Within just two minutes, the young man registered an alleged test center on the KV website and billed them for 492,000 tests.

As an address, he simply gave the address of the bar in Freiburg where he had met his friends the night before.

Lo and behold: just a few days later, the requested 5.7 million euros were in his account.

Detective shocked by easily implemented fraud: "No control took place"

The fact that the young man was able to act without any control made even the judge of the trial at the Freiburg district court, which was heard on Monday, "stunned".

The fraud only came to light because an employee of the Volksbank was surprised at the sudden millions in the trainee's account.

Because of suspicion of money laundering, she reported the process to the criminal police.

At the trial, the presiding judge asked the detectives present if there was anything that made it difficult for the defendant to get the money.

"No, it was way too easy in my opinion," replied a detective.

"There was no control whatsoever." Not even a signature on a form was necessary.

The accused merely entered the number of tests online and invoiced the amount of money incurred.

Thanks to an attentive bank employee: the criminal police are investigating millions in the 19-year-old's account

After the bank employee reported the dubious millions in the 19-year-old's account, it didn't take long for the police to find out that the test center didn't exist.

Meanwhile, the Volksbank had already taken action and had frozen the money in the account.

A few days later she referred it back to the KV.

In view of the negligence with which the KV sent such large sums of money to applicants without checking them, the judges decided the following verdict: The fraudster, who is now 20 years old, receives a youth sentence on probation.

In addition, for educational reasons - which is rather unusual in youth matters - he has to pay a probation condition of 1,500 euros and the costs of the procedure himself.

According to the

, the young man wants to study after his apprenticeship.

Netz discusses the case in Freiburg: "I don't even want to know how many people got away with it"

The report on the million-euro fraud in Freiburg triggered numerous reactions on the Internet.

For example, users on the

platform discussed it.

"If he hadn't asked for such a high amount and given so many tests at once, it might not have been noticed," comments one user.

"Don't want to know how many people have really gotten away with it in the last two years just because they haven't exaggerated so much." Other users agree.

"I guess he would have gotten away with 50,000 euros," someone says.

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In fact, the corona pandemic apparently opened up numerous new opportunities for fraudsters to rip off the state.

In Albstadt, for example, fraudsters sold corona protective equipment that did not exist and fake corona tests also made the rounds.

Drug dealers in the Stuttgart region also discovered a new branch of fraud during the pandemic and sold fake vaccination cards in and around Stuttgart.