Julie received an email from her electricity supplier indicating an over-performer of more than 200 euros, and she almost believed it.
Scams multiply and crooks constantly refine their strategy. Difficult now to identify a fraudulent email, since thanks to the tools of artificial intelligence, the traditional spelling mistakes have disappeared. The victim now receives an email which seems really official from an electricity supplier or his retirement insurance, and he becomes difficult at first glance to realize the deception.
This is what happened to Julie, who recently received an EDF email indicating: “We contact you today in the name of EDF to inform you of a refund regarding an overpayment on your account. After verifying our files, we found that you are eligible for a refund of an amount of 219.90 euros“. The email also specifies a deadline, three days after receipt, to recover the money. Julie is then invited to connect, via a link, to her customer area and to verify that her personal and banking information is up to date. And it is precisely on such a fraudulent link, which should absolutely not click.
Other victims of this new scam have been due by an email from their retirement insurance, this time announcing a pension reimbursement linked to an overpayment. Official organizations remind their customers that they never communicate on this type of subject by email. “All official information is transmitted only via your secure personal space on lassuranceretraite.fr” specifies the organization. EDF also specifies that the email address must end with: @edf.fr, @edf.com, @contactclient-edf.fr, @info-edf.com or @infos-edf.fr.
In general, if an email promises you an easy sum of money to recover, tell yourself that it is probably too good to be true. The crooks play on the urgency and the confidence to push you to click. Before acting, take the time to check the exact address of the sender: a detail is often enough to betray fraud, such as a series of figures, a fault in the domain name or an address that has nothing to do with the official body.
