If you suspected someone had faked a covid text....

[24YearsAtTheTapEnd]

....to say it's positive, is there any way of telling whether they were lying or not?

Just say, they were self employed, they sent this out to their clients to show that they had covid, but there some weird shit that doesn't add up and you wondered if it was every true.
(The week before, I told this person how my kid got pranked because his friend sent round a text saying that he was positive but all his friend had done was copy and paste the text and change the name to his. A seed had been sown...)

I just wondered if there was a way of finding out if it was true without asking them for more proof?

I wouldn't have thought so. It would make me wonder though, no self-employed person wants to be turning work down right now.

You posted this before didnt you?

If they're that desperate to self isolate by faking a text, I'd think there was something else going on and hope they were OK.

Not in Mumsnet, no.
I've been banned and only just been allowed back in.

You may well have read it somewhere else....

Oooh, what were you banned for?

Surly if they are self employed it’s a hinderance to them too have covid, so why would they lie about it? What’s the benefit?

@DonLewis

Oooh, what were you banned for?

Just being a bit of a stressed out arsehole and taking it out in somewhere here by calling a spade a spade.

Well it's possible, no point speculating "why a self employed person would do that?" people do dumb shit for a whole myriad of reasons.

I reported the result of my lateral flow test (negative) and later revived a text to confirm my result was negative.
I thought it was strange to receive official confirmation of a result that only I was able to verify. Maybe you could do the same thing with a positive result?

Ah, OK. Hope you're feeling better now?

@Magnificentmug12

Surly if they are self employed it’s a hinderance to them too have covid, so why would they lie about it? What’s the benefit?

Yes, that's the other thing. The dates worked out SO well that this person missed out on minimal amount of money and none of us had to isolate as a result and it was added on to the holiday of this person....

Self employed don’t get holiday entitlement.

@Mum198000

Self employed don’t get holiday entitlement.

Ok.....?

There was a very similar post previously, which is why it seems familiar.

You can never prove one way or another.

@AfternoonToffee

There was a very similar post previously, which is why it seems familiar.

You can never prove one way or another.

Ah, I've been 'away' for a week so I haven't seen it. Maybe it's another one of these peoples clients. 😁

Can you remember the title of the thread so I can search for it?

As it's someone else's private medical history your won't be able to find out.

I think it’s very unlikely that someone who’s self employed would chose to take time off as it is unpaid. I’m self employed and have had a couple days off sick, I don’t get anything, I don’t get holiday or sick pay.

How are their actions affecting you personally?

These days anything can be faked but why if he's self employed does he need to prove it to anyone? He could just tell his customers why is he sending proof?

@Returnoftheowl

As it's someone else's private medical history your won't be able to find out.

LOL! I didn't want to read their medical records, come on now.

I just wondered if there was a way of seeing a 'a person' had tested positive on their street or something vaguely similar to that. I've just plucked that out the air.
Clearly there isn't, so my question has been answered.

It would definitely be possible to fake a text of course it would.
A very simple way would be to save a number in your phone as NHS and then have them text you word for word a replica of a test result, there are probably better technical ways too.
Why are you so invested in whether this person has faked a test? You won't be able to know for sure if or what they've done or how and I wouldn't ask them either.
If this is someone you've employed to do a job and you distrust them this much then maybe its time to look for someone else.

What benefits are they getting by faking it?

@24YearsAtTheTapEnd, thank god there is no system that tells you in x persons in one street have tested positive.

Can you imagine the possible repercussions if you then person A who happens to live in that street out and about etc..?
Or the fact that suddenly it becomes obvious that it’s person A who has it, basically blowing away any confidentiality.

Not read the full thread so apologies if this has been said. Could you ask on social media for someone to show their covid positive text to you via screenshot? They can block out personal details you just need to see a genuine one to stop the fakes IYSWIM.

You can only drill down into an area. It won't go by street. Obviously if there were 0 cases for that week then it'd be dodgy, though not completely reliable either. Our area just dropped to zero briefly, for eg. But I don't know how accurate that is.