More and more sophisticated scams. Planet regularly alerts you to scams that are rampant by SMS, on the Internet or directly by telephone. Even if you are careful – and we know you are careful – you can easily fall into the trap set for you by these scammers, who will stop at nothing. This week, it’s a two-step deception that targets many French people, including one we met.
Etienne, in his thirties, is not the type to be fooled. A regular on social networks, very comfortable with technology, he knows how to spot a scam when he sees one. However, he too fell into the trap this week, proof that you can never be too careful. From Planet, he explains that he received a first SMS informing him that his package was stuck at customs and that to recover it, he had to pay additional costs. Nothing really new under the sun, this scam has existed in France for a long time.
However, Etienne immediately falls for the trap, because he is indeed waiting for a parcel from Chronopost. The SMS is written without any mistakes, neither in syntax nor in spelling:
Etienne pays no attention to the number that sent him this text, which begins with 07. Slightly suspicious, he clicks on the link and takes the time to examine the page, which looks like two drops of water like a page from Chronopost : “I tell myself that it looks authentic, so I fill in my details and I realize right after that it’s a scam”. The 30-year-old was the victim of phishing and his bank details are now within the reach of scammers, who won’t wait long to use them. Five minutes after his mistake, Etienne contacts his bank and has the right reflex, which allows him to avoid the damage… Until the next day and the second act of this scam.
“As I understood that I had been taken in by this SMS, I contacted my bank in the afternoon to find out what I could do before the fraud reached my bank account. “, explains Etienne. A Caisse d’Epargne customer, he benefits from an option allowing him to temporarily lock his credit card: “This system temporarily prevents transactions of more than 100 euros, all online payments and payments from abroad “.
If this system reassures Etienne, he already knows that he will have to oppose his card. 24 hours after the – successful – phishing attempt, the 30-year-old received a phone call from a bank adviser, telling him that a strange payment had been made in Morocco. Confident, Etienne almost answered his questions… Fortunately, he didn’t. After the fraudulent SMS, we must now be wary of the call that follows. Here’s why.
The bank adviser who calls Etienne explains to him that he is part of the fraud department and asks for his validation code. In reality, he is a scammer “well aware of my bank details”, explains the 30-year-old, adding: “He tried to get my validation code by calling me because he could not validate the payment”.
Fortunately, Etienne has the right reflex and replies that he does not understand why this person is calling with a number in 07… He asks him to call back with the Caisse d’Epargne number, which the scammer will obviously not do . By calling his branch, he confirmed that no one had tried to reach him: “The bank or its fraud prevention service never contacts the customer, it is up to us to report fraud”. “As the hackers have my bank details but not my validation code, they will not actually be able to take anything but, as a precaution, I am advised to oppose to receive a new bank card”, concludes Etienne.
