A phishing attempt with an impeccable tone, a transfer request that seems banal: be careful, this scam is targeting more and more tenants. A formidable trap which almost cost Margot more than 1800 euros. She is testifying to alert consumers to this well-oiled fraud.
A simple message can lose hundreds of euros: we know, our mailboxes are full of phishing attempts, each more elaborate than the last. Cybercriminals are refining their techniques, not hesitating to resort to identity theft of recognized companies to lull the vigilance of their victims. False invoices, invented administrative alerts, “urgent” notifications: fraudulent maneuvers are multiplying and gaining credibility. Although most usually end up in spam, some scams still manage to slip through the cracks, sowing doubt and exposing consumers to real financial harm.
This is exactly what happened to Margot. Tenant of an apartment in Val-de-Marne, she almost got cheated. “A few days ago, a little before the end of the month and therefore the payment of my rent, I received an email from my real estate agency. At first, I wasn’t paying attention… I could have easily fallen for it and made the transfer.”explains the young thirty-year-old. In reality, this email did not come from its lessor at all, but from scammers.
It must be said that the scam is well-crafted: the criminals pose as the victim’s real estate agency, claiming a change of bank details following a temporary technical error. “There were no spelling errors, the text was very well worded. Anyone could have been trapped. Fortunately I am suspicious and certain elements seemed suspicious to me.” Indeed, the new RIB communicated in the email was affiliated with a personal name, rather than with a company like Century21, which is usually the case. Additionally, the sender requested a “proof of transferwhich Margot has never needed to do before. “On my phone, I saw ‘Info Gestion Immobilier’ displayed as the sender, but it didn’t jump out at me right away. Luckily I also checked the email address. Otherwise, I would have paid my rent to the scammers, almost 900 euros, but a second time to my real agency!”sighs the young woman. Indeed, the email address was not official, which definitely convinced her that it was a fraud.
In recent years, this attempted scam seems to be gaining momentum: the official website Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr has identified “several waves” of these rent embezzlement scams “since the end of 2022″. Some take the form of a change of bank details, as for Margot, while others mention a failure to pay rent to be regularized as quickly as possible. The government specifies that a particular detail must alert the recipients of these emails: in addition to a very often false address, it is above all the “impersonal character” of the message that should put the flea in the ear. Your identity or that of your owner/lessor is never mentioned. Moreover, these emails are almost systematically signed by the “accounting department” or “management”, without any additional details.
In Margot’s case, the message was signed by a certain Lauriane B., but the entity Century21 does not appear anywhere: “I have never dealt with this person in my previous interactions with my agency. And by typing his name on the internet, I realized that several reports had been made, warning of ‘false RIB type fraud’. But luckily I thought to check!” Margot had the right reflex, but not everyone has this vigilance. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr reminds that these scams can affect anyone and that rapid reporting often allows other victims to be avoided. A minute to check is sometimes enough to thwart scams that could have been very expensive.
