At a time when the plaque usurpation is increasing, free flow highways create new vulnerabilities. But the highway dealers want to be reassuring.
It is now of public notoriety: the phenomenon of usurpation of license plates is gaining momentum in France. According to the association 40 million motorists, between 400,000 and 1 million French motorists have already victims of this fraud. Official figures confirm a constant increase in usurpations. In 2023, 23,072 cases were identified ( +4.8 % in one year) and in the space of 6 years (from 2017 to 2023), we can even speak of an explosion of these frauds: +45.8 %.
The consequences for the victims are heavy: unjustified fines sometimes accumulating over several months, loss of points on the driving license and long and complex administrative procedures to prove their innocence. It must be said the ease with which fraudsters can reproduce a license plate. Just photograph a vehicle discreetly to order a “Doublet” identical, allowing to circulate at the expense of another motorist.
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An increased risk with free flow tolls?
In this context, if the arrival of highways with tolls «freely» Like the A13 and the A14 revolutionizes the motorway experience, it creates new vulnerabilities. These barrier -free systems are exclusively based on automatic reading of license plates to identify each user and later send it a payment notice. This dependence on plaque identification offers fraudsters an opportunity: a single doublet is enough to bring the toll costs to a innocent victim of a journey that it has never made.
The crooks also know how to show another malice: taking advantage of the digital transition and the possible ignorance of the public concerning these new systems, these scammers massively send false messages claiming the payment of a fictional motorway trip.
This highway dealer wants to be reassuring
Faced with these growing threats, the Sanef motorway society – that which exploits the most portions in free flow in the country – deploys an arsenal to prevent these scams. His customer service deals with the disputes: in the event of receipt of a payment notice for an unrealized journey, the victim must imperatively file a complaint with the police, warns the SANEF. On presentation of the complaint receipt, the motorway manager can then return to the disputed payment notice.
There are no concert figures from fraud to the usur hob on free flow tolls, but the overall payment rate is estimated at around 97 %. This shows that the disputes of which possible due to usurpations are marginal. There is nothing to fear, but by adopting good prevention gestures (never publish photos of your vehicle with the plaque visible on social networks, keep proof of travel: tickets, geolocated photos, GPS data), you should not be too worried.