Dear Reader,

It’s been a good 14 months for tricksters and frauds.

At the beginning of the pandemic hundreds of millions of euros were dished out to people making fraudulent state aid claims for shuttered businesses; meanwhile politicians were using their connections to take enormous commissions on mask deals.

The latest get-rich-quick scheme involves the antigen test centres that have been sprouting up all over the country in recent weeks. They are free at the point of use and require no appointment. While this sounds fantastic, the real costs are hidden in a bill that is awaiting that tax payer - the government compensates the private testing companies to the tune of €18 per test.

Research done by public broadcaster WDR shows that one of the largest companies that provides the testing in North Rhine-Westphalia has been charging for double or triple the actual amount of tests it has conducted.

The fraud has been made simple by the fact that the companies don’t need to provide any details…