Enedis has decided to take action. The electricity distributor is tackling Linky meter fraudsters. To do this, the company has already trained 250 new employees and will train 250 more. Major means which made it possible to identify 500 fraudulent households.
© SOPA Images / Getty Images
– Enedis has hired 250 agents to spot irregularities remotely.
Enedis claws out. THE electricity distributor decided to crack down. He plans to track down Linky meter fraudsters. To do this, the company did not hesitate to hire 250 agents to identify the irregularities remotely in order to subsequently send teams into intervention, reports The Parisianon October 8, 2024. In addition, 250 other agents will be trained in the coming months. For now, Enedis is focusing on 500 foyers suspectsspread across five different regions, in the Grand Est, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Occitanie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Île-de-France.
Although fraud is far from new, it has been increasing in number in recent years and has even exploded since 2022 with the “surge in electricity prices in 2022”concedes Bertrand Boutteau, director of the Losses and Frauds program at Enedis, to Le Parisien. Some also seized the opportunity of the generalization of Linky meter to try to launch a fraud business. Bertrand Boutteau deplores that “ads from so-called electricians abound on social networks, such as Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook or Instagram”. The criminals “promise big savings on bills by changing the meter, in exchange for a few hundred euros in cash”.
Also read: Linky: here is what you will have to pay if you refuse to change your meter
A significant shortfall
The shortfall is very significant for Enedis. In 2024, fraud currently represents 250 million euros in additional costs. In addition, the electricity distributor alerts on risks that such fraudulent installations represent. Too regularly, when controllers arrive on site to note an irregularity, they find themselves faced with unsuitable material to receive such current intensities.
The famous 500 customers targeted by the vast control operation have already received a letter in which they were informed of an upcoming intervention. “An alarm was recorded reporting an illegal intervention on the meter of your installation, followed by an abnormal drop in the energy recorded. This observation is characteristic of a situation of counting fraud.we can read. They will now receive a visit from Enedis agents who will repair their Linky meter.
Receive our latest news Every day, the selection of main information of the day.
