Scams are increasing in France and on all media. But where are you most likely to be fooled? Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr has revealed the main threats.
Scams are rife. In stores, at your door, on the phone, in your mailboxes, it is increasingly difficult to disentangle fact from fiction. However, there are places and times of the day where you may be more likely to be fooled. As such, online scams, which can take place in just a few moments, are considered the most dangerous. Good advice: be wary of certain behaviors that are quite natural, such as responding to someone who does not present themselves as an advisor, they can lead to a scam without you realizing it.
Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr has published its report on the state of threats in France, established thanks to the number of consultations on its platform. It places phishing in first place among the most numerous scams. This aims to obtain sensitive and personal information from the victim in order to be able to steal money from them or resell their data. It can occur in various forms: SMS, emails, social networks, QR codes… The most used channel for these scams is SMS, with the mobile phone being the preferred target of cybercriminals.
Furthermore, the main phishing technique that was detected in 2023 is the false traffic offense receipt: “With more than 280,000 consultations of the dedicated article, traffic offense phishing requesting payment of a fictitious fine is the most important phenomenon that continued throughout 2023,” describes the report. Next comes the child pornography offense (scam message impersonating the police) and false technical support (fraudulent message about a serious technical problem to encourage pseudo-repair).
After phishing, account takeover takes second place among the most significant threats and has increased significantly (22% additional searches on the site). The crooks manage to recover the victim’s password and then use their accounts, whether messaging, social networks, banks, administrations, etc. They can then usurp the victim’s identity.
The fake bank advisor scam is described as “the phenomenon of the year” with a 78% increase in traffic to the article dedicated to this fraud. Cybercriminals collect data from the victim in order to make their false identity as a banking advisor more credible. Then, they pretend, for example, to cancel a fraudulent transaction, forcing the victim to provide their bank details. This scam is becoming more and more widespread; it is based on the naivety of everyone and our desire to respond courteously to someone who comes to our aid.
For 2024, the organization is already warning against scams surrounding the Olympic Games. This could notably involve false links for free places. On the other hand, artificial intelligence has not yet been seen as a “cyber threat game changer” but this could quickly evolve.