Paris (AFP)

"Say no to the vaccine and take advantage of the health pass without getting vaccinated", "your health pass by email within 8 or even 10 hours maximum", "vaccination becomes optional thanks to our service": it is possible to obtain a fake health pass on social networks, by dialoguing with accounts whose lifespan does not exceed a few days.

"I found a solution at 350 euros", explains to AFP a young man of 28 years who wished to remain anonymous.

He claims not to be "anti-vaccine", but does not understand why push the youngest to be vaccinated if they are not vulnerable.

"If [Covid-19] still exists when I'm 50 or 60, then yes, I'll get vaccinated."

The Covid tests constitute for this entrepreneur in the event a "short-term solution": he fears being tested positive because this would imply a new shutdown of his activity, a sector already battered by the health crisis.

"The guards explained to me that you may be the one who organizes the evening, if I am positive, I cannot go to my own event," he annoys.

But how can you be sure that your fake health pass will work?

"It's a plan with knowledge that will have already tested before me," admits the young man.

- 140 to 350 euros -

Just type in the keywords "Fake Sanitary Pass" to find dozens of counterfeit accounts on the Snapchat social network.

Facebook posts are also promoting the sale of fake passes - sometimes authors even pay Facebook to feature them on user newsfeeds.

The procedure is more or less the same: everyone asks for a surname, first name, a Social Security number, an email and postal address to receive the health pass.

"I send your information to my supplier doctor who registers you on ameli.fr and tousanticovid", explains a forger.

The client is then officially counted as having had his two doses of vaccine in the health insurance database: the false health pass is therefore ... "true".

It is possible to obtain a fake health pass in one day on social networks JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER AFP / Archives

As a token of trust, some sellers only require payment after the customer has tested their pass, while other, more followed accounts boast an already well-established reputation thanks to their experience in fake PCR tests. or antigenic.

Prices vary from 140 to 350 euros, AFP journalists noted.

Payment is most often made by Lydia, an application that allows you to send or receive money with your phone, or with Transcash or Paysafecard coupons, to be purchased on the Internet or in tobacco shops without the buyer does not have to issue information relating to a bank account or credit card.

The seller then collects the money by entering the codes contained in the coupon, in the form of credit to be spent in thousands of partner sites (online stores, sports betting sites, etc.).

"I go through Paysafecard because it's not like PayPal, it's untraceable," assures a seller of health passes to AFP.

- Hunting for false passes -

The shots are increasing.

The number of requisitions sent by the police to the Health Insurance has skyrocketed: 46 received since May for forgery and use of false health passes, according to the organization to AFP, including 10 just on Monday and Tuesday, as well as 30 complaints and reports filed by the social security funds.

A doctor in Gironde discovered that his profile had been used on the site of the Health insurance for health professionals, in order to publish 55 false vaccine certificates;

he lodged a complaint and an investigation was opened on Thursday.

The health pass: where and when?

Bertille LAGORCE AFP / Archives

Several people have been indicted in recent weeks in Paris, Grenoble or Bordeaux.

At least a prison sentence - converted into house arrest - was even pronounced at the end of July in Seine-Saint-Denis against a contract of a vaccidrive which had generated 200 false QR codes to resell them.

There is a "scam" with the "fake QR code", but Social Security particularly targets fraudulent certificates, created "as if the person had been vaccinated, while he had not received any injection".

Counterfeiters risk up to 5 years imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros, and users up to 3 years in prison.

By using these fraudulent passes, they also refrain from changing their minds in the future to really get vaccinated ... since they have officially already received their two doses.

© 2021 AFP