One of the hottest scams continues to claim victims.
He was in a hurry and thought he would do well to secure the shot. From now on, Léo (not his real name) hardly sleeps at night. For several days, this thirty-year-old has been ruminating and beating himself up after falling into an SMS trap. An aeronautics engineer, he was robbed, in a few minutes, of several thousand euros by clicking on a link provided in a text message, asking him to pay a small sum. It was bad for him. After entering his bank card codes, it was not €1.99 that he paid but rather a large part of his money vanished from his bank account.
If the scam involving fake SMS tickets or vital card renewals proliferates, another is just as widespread and continues to confuse many French people. Even a highly qualified thirty-something executive? “18-34 year olds are more likely to be victims than their elders. One of the explanations is that this is a more connected population which will be less suspicious, just like the CSP+, more affected and boys are fooled more than girls,” says Jean-Jacques Latour, cybersecurity expertise director at Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr.
Léo’s story is unfortunately common and the unfolding of the facts shows how quickly the thugs manage to undermine the vigilance of their targets. The story begins a week earlier: the future victim must order a school book for her daughter. In just a few clicks, an order is placed on a website. Delivery expected a few days later.
While the book was due to arrive shortly, Léo receives a text message. “Hello, it’s the delivery person. Your package does not fit in the mailbox. Please choose a new slot”, it is written, accompanied by a link to a web page. Without a second thought, the engineer clicks to reschedule the delivery. Fees are required. 1.99 euros. Too bad. In a hurry, so that his daughter can quickly obtain her book, he pays the supplement. Or so he thought. That it was not her (very bad) surprise when unauthorized debits appeared on her bank account. Total damage: 3000 euros!
As he himself knowingly entered his bank card codes, but the site was indeed fraudulent, the bank will not reimburse him for the entire amount unduly taken by the crooks. Only half. A bad adventure, which he could have done without. Enough to make Jean-Jacques Latour philosophical: “The best way to avoid this is to inform yourself, to know that fake package scams exist. From the moment you know that the risk exists, you will know how to react.” The book finally arrived. It fit well in the mailbox.