Using a fake health pass will be more severely punished in France

The “health vigilance” bill, passed by the National Assembly, will further toughen the maximum prison sentences in the event of the use or manufacture of a fake health pass.

Using a fraudulent health pass will be even more risky in France.

The term health pass has now entered into everyday language, as it is required at the entrance to a large number of places open to the public. The precious QR Code can make people envious, and fake pass traffic has unfortunately been organized for months, all over the world. Health insurance has received between 6 and 10 reports of fraudulent passes every day since the end of August, in France alone, according to Le Parisien.

To fight even harder against this large-scale fraud, a government bill called "health vigilance" will ratify the increase in the maximum penalty, from 3 to 5 years for users who commit these abuse. This project has just been voted by the National Assembly on November 5, 2021.

We can read in this new text that “the forgery committed (…) is punished by five years of imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros. The use, power of attorney or proposal of power of attorney for forgery mentioned in this paragraph is punishable by the same penalties.

Until now, the law provided for 3 years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros for forgery or use of forgery. It was only the counterfeiters who risked 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. From now on, everyone will be put on the same equal footing: it will be the highest penalty, for everyone.

People at the table in a restaurant, like in the old world

Source: pxhere

Nevertheless, some penalties could be difficult to apply when it comes to negative covid test fraud. As shown by France Info, the police would have to carry out checks with the laboratory which is mentioned on the document to find out if the person checked has indeed taken a test, and that he is negative.

Tens of thousands of fraudsters

The most common frauds come from certain members of the healthcare staff, who are those who have the easiest access to the software for producing health passes. 270 employees were suspected, at the end of September, of having embarked on this traffic, which would have benefited at least 36,000 French men and women.

Recently, another scandal almost erupted concerning the QR Codes for health passes: as we revealed at the end of October, an official Macedonian site which allowed the creation of authentic health passes had been made freely available and usable access, to whoever had the link. It had been possible, as Numerama had verified, to create fake health passes considered "valid" by the verification applications. Fortunately, the problematic key had been revoked, and the generated passes identified as invalid.

The health pass is a document that can take several forms: a valid vaccination certificate, a negative covid test or a recovery certificate.

Understand everything in the health pass