Like Jean, many victims have paid the price for this scam that affects everyone, whatever the age.
Jean, 73, was just thinking of solving a banking problem. Instead, he came close to a significant loss of money. Like many others, it was taken in the nets of a discreet but formidable scam, which targets all profiles, without distinction of age. Jean lives in the Paris region with his wife. He is a grandfather, active, surrounded, accustomed to the visits of his children and grandchildren. But last week, he was due by well -organized fraud. He did not know the mechanisms. And above all, he believed in what was told.
“At no time did I think it was a scam,” he said. The trap is based on a proven technique: put pressure to push the victim to act in an emergency, without perspective. “It all started with a slightly worrying phone call, but the person on the phone seems to manage the situation,” recalls Jean. The false banking advisor is reassuring, professional. He knows the identity of Jean, his address, and details all his recent expenses with disturbing accuracy. “He reviewed all my bank statement by detailing the price, the date, which I spent and in which store … Everything was so precise that I was confident,” explains Jean.
The false banker then alerted him to a suspicious debit: “We also saw a payment for a stay in Morocco at more than 1500 euros”, he announces. Jean denies, of course. The false advisor then offers a quick solution: block the card immediately. And to go faster, he even sends a courier looking for Jean’s bank card at his home. “A car arrived at the bottom of my house, I put my bank card in an envelope, I went down, and I gave it to it!”, He said still, stunned.
It was his wife who shortly after, suspects the scam. “You don’t give his bank card in the street,” she said, insisting to call the real bank. Jean follows this advice. He opposed in time, just before the crooks empty his account. It will take a week to get a new card. “It served as a lesson, and I will be much more suspicious in the future,” he says, still shaken.
