Beware of the messages you receive on WhatsApp right now! A fake SNCF competition to win a year of free train travel is currently circulating on the messaging service. Do not get fooled !
The end-of-year holidays are a real boon for scammers of all kinds, and in particular for scammers who redouble their activity and ingenuity to trap consumers, always happy to find good deals for their Christmas shopping at a lower cost, especially with inflation. Cybercriminals have understood this well by setting up various scams based on promotions and other irresistible offers to better lure their victims. This time, SNCF Voyageurs warns of a fake competition, entitled “Happy travels and best wishes”, which is rampant on WhatsApp and which promises free travel “for one year” For “1,000 lucky ones”. A scam that unfortunately comes at the right time, when many travelers are looking to reunite with their families for New Year’s Eve and the school holidays.
A fake competition entitled “Happy travels and best wishes” is currently circulating on various social media. This is a scam. We recommend that you do not open the link or spread it around. Thank you for your vigilance.
— SNCF Voyageurs (@SNCFVoyageurs) December 17, 2023
Happy travels and best wishes: a classic phishing attempt
“A fake competition titled ‘Happy travels and best wishes’ is currently circulating on various social media. This is a scam. We recommend that you do not open the link and do not spread it around. Thank you of your vigilance”, alerts the SNCF in a tweet broadcast on X this Sunday, December 17. As you will have understood, this is a phishing attempt intended to extract your personal and banking information. This is why you should always be wary of unexpected messages that you receive by email, SMS or instant messaging, especially if they contain a link. Here, the URL was immediately suspicious, the domain name ([email protected]) being different from that of SNCF.
This is not the first time that scammers have pretended to be the SNCF to try to dupe their victims. This summer, false advertisements circulating on Facebook offered to obtain a gift card offering a year of free travel for only 1.95 euros (see our article). With the end-of-year holidays, parcel scams are also increasing, with consumers impatiently waiting to have Christmas gifts delivered to them for their loved ones. This may be an SMS telling you that there has been a logistical error on Chronopost’s side, that a carrier has attempted to deliver a package to you or is awaiting instructions for its delivery, or a request paying shipping or postage costs – there is no shortage of alternatives. So be extra vigilant at this time and never click on the links. Prefer to go directly to the official page and check every detail – like the package number or URL for example.