After the personal training account scam, a new scam is on the rise on the Internet. For the past few months, ads promising you to blow up your PV have flourished on social networks, especially on Snapchat. Anonymous accounts, with a presentation that inspires confidence, boast of being able to blow up your fine notices without interception, i.e. the minutes on which only the license plate is mentioned (and not the identity of the driver).
The procedure is simple: just send the notice of violation, and the online “provider” takes care of everything. You will no longer have to pay a fine, and above all no loss of points. In return, the fined motorist agrees to pay half the price of the fine to the service provider, generally €45. “Obviously, the offer is tempting for certain drivers fined for minor speeding violations. Online discourse is well-honed. I had the opportunity to see this kind of ad, and quite honestly, it’s really well done. You have a nice flyer with nice cars, there’s a real com’…”, explains to 20 minutes Me Etienne Lejeune, lawyer specializing in traffic lawwhich defends several drivers who have been tempted by this scheme, which is in fact a real scam.
“The same identity used more than 14,000 times”
Several months later, some drivers – who thought they had dodged the fines – received a funny summons. “Some people, clients I defend today, received summonses to appear before the police court, in which they were accused of identity theft, with threats of prosecution for slanderous denunciation and the provision of false information”, explains the lawyer specializing in traffic law.
“On one of the letters, it was even indicated that the identity communicated to the administration to contest the PV had been used more than 14,000 times! Because the trick consisted in fact for the “service provider” to designate as the perpetrator of the offenses, in your place, a person holding a foreign driving license, who cannot be fined on French territory. Except that the follow-up of PV disputes without interception is centralized at the National Processing Center in Rennes. Who obviously started to wince when he received several hundred designations in the name of the same individual! “, specifies Me Etienne Lejeune.
Up to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros
As a result, many drivers find themselves relieved of the money paid to the “provider” on Snapchat, with the added bonus of a summons for much more serious facts. “I am currently defending a truck driver from Béthune (Pas-de-Calais) who also risks losing his job”, adds the lawyer based in Le Havre, who has already taken care of a dozen clients victims of this scam. . Other lawyers, all over France, have also already alerted to the resurgence of this type of scam on social networks.
Four people were thus the subject in 2022 of a summons to the judicial court of Nîmes (Gard) for complicity in forgery and use of forgery as well as for speeding, the subject of the initial notice of contravention. They face a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros.