"Several hundred million euros per year": Enedis raises the alarm over the rise of fraud on Linky meters

A real red herring for years. Enedis, the French electricity distribution network manager, launched an operation on Tuesday to combat fraud involving Linky smart meters , with 121 checks carried out across the country, in the face of an explosion in the number of "tampered" boxes. "Over the past three years, we have observed more than 100,000 tampered meters and it is clearly increasing," Bertrand Boutteau, director of anti-fraud operations at Enedis, warned the press.

The operator claims that these frauds cost it "several hundred million euros per year." On Tuesday, Enedis launched a national anti-fraud operation with a total of 121 simultaneous checks, mainly in urban areas. "We don't have a typical profile of the fraudster or more favorable areas, everyone is affected," explains Mr. Boutteau. The diversion system that allows electricity consumption to be diverted is complex to set up, but once placed on the meter, it allows approximately two-thirds of its energy consumption to be hidden.

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Since Linky meters are connected, Enedis teams are notified as soon as someone intervenes on the device. And if the company then notices a drastic drop in consumption, it will suspect fraud and intervene. "Here, we see that the restaurant owner has reversed this cable, which allows him to subtract a large part of his consumption. Normally, he consumes 85 kilowatt hours per day, and since May 2024, we see that he is only at 25 per day," notes Damien, a technician for Enedis, during an inspection carried out in front of journalists in Rueil-Malmaison, west of Paris, on the tampered meter of a large restaurant chain.

These frauds have exploded since 2022 with the increase in the cost of energy but also due to the dissemination on social networks of videos with techniques to reduce consumption by manipulating Linky boxes, according to Enedis. On the internet also, many offers propose the services of a "specialist" to tamper with your meter, or some sell seals imitating those installed by the company. "It's a real scourge," underlines Laurence Magliano, spokesperson for Enedis, "every year, the equivalent of the electricity consumption of Charente is defrauded." "We contact the platforms and ask them to moderate this content, but we must strengthen this part of our action," concedes Bertrand Boutteau.

Once the fraud is detected, Enedis asks the fraudster to pay what is owed and forwards a group complaint to the public prosecutor, who, according to the company, practices a "zero tolerance" policy . Enedis does not disclose the number of successful complaints, but fraudsters risk fines of up to €75,000 and five years in prison. To strengthen its fight, Enedis plans to double the number of sworn agents to detect fraud: from 250 agents today, there will be 500 by 2026. According to June figures released by Enedis, the Linky meter coverage rate among users has reached 95%, with 38 million connected devices installed and 2 million meters remaining to be equipped.