Home Loan: This New Scam Could Make You Lose Tens of Thousands of Euros

The Bank of France warns of the proliferation of false offers of real estate credits, transmitted by scammers to households planning to buy a home. The victims risk a lot.

This is a new scourge that worries the public authorities and can cause the people concerned to lose considerable sums of money. For several weeks, the Banque de France has noted an increase in scams involving false offers of real estate credit and loan buyouts. In a press release published this Wednesday, September 4, the institution warns the public against these fraudulent practices that lead to a risk of significant losses for the victims. But what exactly is it? We explain the principle of these scams.

These scams are based in their vast majority on the usurpation of the identity of brokers and credit institutions authorized to operate in France. In concrete terms, the scammers pretend to be brokers and try to attract people who are planning to take out a mortgage. To achieve this, they use fake advertisements posted on social networks or use a fake online credit comparison tool to retrieve the victims’ contact details.

Then, the scammers approach the victims by telephone, in order to offer them to take out a mortgage at particularly attractive rates. To establish their credibility and reassure the victims, these thieves use falsified official documents, with the logos of establishments authorized to grant credit in France as their headers. They also use domain names resembling those of authorized establishments or brokers. Once a relationship of trust has been established with the victim, the scammers present them with a mortgage offer, sometimes real, most often issued by a foreign bank.

Losses that can reach 50,000 euros

After signing the fake credit offer, the scammers ask the victim to pay their personal contribution into a bank account, which is often in the name of a credit institution whose identity has been stolen. As you will have understood, the money is actually transferred to the scammers’ account and the victim will never see their savings again.This is terrible, the scam is very sophisticated and The scammers manage to extract considerable sums of money which can go up to 50,000 eurostells Capital Côme Robet, president of the professional association of credit brokers, who himself had his identity stolen by a crook who scammed his clients. Victims see their personal contribution suddenly disappear and no longer have the possibility of buying a property afterwards. They find themselves completely destitute.”.

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As for the second scam, namely the credit buyout scam, the modus operandi is different. The scammers approach households that have recently taken out a loan to carry out energy renovation work by email or telephone in order to offer to buy back their credit. They again present themselves as brokers by stealing their identity or even as representatives of the Ministry of Ecological Transition. The victims will then send all the documents necessary to take out a new loan. When the credit is granted and the funds released, the victims are invited to make a transfer to settle the first credit. The money is actually transferred to an account belonging to the scammer and the victim ends up with two credits to repay simultaneously.

To avoid being scammed, the Banque de France strongly advises you to “ensure that your contact is indeed employed by the company to which he refers by making a counter-call to the headquarters of this company from a number that you have found yourself.” In this way, you will be able to easily unmask the scammer even if the latter has usurped the identity of a broker. In addition, the Banque de France has listed on a site domain names that have already been identified in the context of fraudulent offers. You can therefore consult this list in order to ensure that the site you used in the context of your credit application is not mentioned there.