When we are the victim of a scam, the amount stolen can sometimes work against us. This is the case of a retiree who was unable to appeal the court decision because of the amount that the scammer stole from her. It wasn’t enough!
Being the victim of a scam does not always mean being protected or reimbursed, contrary to what one might think. Indeed, the way of having money stolen can sometimes put us in a more than embarrassing situation and the scammers know this well. By perfectly imitating emails from our operators or official sites, or even from our personal contacts, they manage without any difficulty to trick us into falling into the trap. The problem is that victims are now forced to prove that they saw nothing coming. It is on this notion of “gross negligence”, an exception provided for by law, that judges will be able to decide in favor of the victim… or the bank.
If it is considered that the victim could have realized the deception by analyzing in more detail the sender’s email address or the spelling mistakes for example, there is little chance that they will win their case and recover their money. But what few people know is that the amount stolen can also work against you. “This is the case of a retiree who was phished via false SMS to update her Netflix subscription“, tells us Maître Aubane Malvezin, lawyer at the Aix-en-Provence Bar in consumer law and banking law.
This elderly person, for fear of no longer being able to watch their favorite films and series, does so without realizing anything, and for good reason: the text messages look completely real. “The victim followed up by filling in their bank details on the link provided in the SMS, then was contacted by telephone by a fraudster“, who therefore knows all of her banking information, which can only increase the customer’s confidence”the lawyer explains to us. The scammer manages to make two transfers totaling €4,900, but the victim’s good faith was not taken into account, nor his age for that matter. “Age should be taken into account, but it was not in this situation: the judge considered that the victim had the possibility to go to his Netflix account to verify the reality of the request to update his account as well as to contact his bank to verify the fraudulent information“, regrets the lawyer. A court decision “very severe” which the victim was unable to appeal. Indeed, “for a dispute of less than 5,000 euros, or within 100 euros, the victim was not able to appeal the court decision!”
Please note: before being able to take legal action for disputes concerning amounts less than 5,000 euros, the law requires first an amicable resolution with a legal conciliator or a mediator under penalty of seeing your legal request deemed inadmissible. Finally, be aware that if the judgment rendered in “last resort” contains a flagrant error of law, the only remaining legal recourse is an appeal to the Court of Cassation within two months. To avoid getting to this point, the first instinct is to immediately contact your bank to block the transactions and file a complaint (in particular via the official Thésée platform dedicated to online scams).
Thanks to Maître Aubane Malvezin, lawyer in consumer law and banking law, partner and Vice-President of the Aix association for the defense of consumer rights QUE CHOISIR ENSEMBLE.
