Credit Card Scam: Beware Of Spoofing!
Banks are alerting their customers to an upsurge in credit card scams. A new scam called spoofing is making more and more victims in France these last weeks. We explain what it is and how to protect yourself.
What is spoofing?
The word 'spoofing' is an Anglicism that literally means identity theft.
It is a new credit card scam technique that is currently claiming many victims.
The spoofing usually takes the form of a phone scam, although scammers may also contact you by email or text message.
In all cases, the scammers who contact you present themselves as your bank, hence the name of this scam referring to identity theft.
What is this scam?
As a rule, spoofing scammers already have information about their victims.
They contact you by phone, text message or even email and pretend to be your bank in order to get your bank credentials.
But if you fall for it and reveal your credentials to them, they can divert money from your account to another fraudulent account.
This scam, however simple it may seem, is formidable because it can cost you several thousand dollars.
Why do customers get trapped?
For spoofing victims, it's hard to tell the difference between a genuine call (or message) from the bank and a scam.
This is because the number of your bank or your bank's customer service department does appear on your phone during the call.
Likewise, your bank's letterhead does appear in the emails the scammers send you.
On the phone, the person presents himself as an employee of your bank branch or an inspector from your bank's fraud control department.
They tell you that you are a victim of an attack and give you several pieces of personal information about yourself (such as your first and last name, address, and phone number) to build your confidence and better extract your personal codes.
The scammer on the other end of the phone claims to need your banking credentials to block fraudulent transactions on your account.
They also sometimes claim to send you cancellation codes so they can stop the fraud, when in reality they are codes to validate purchases they are making online, on sites often located abroad.
The scam is very well developed by professionals, so anyone can fall into this trap.
How to protect yourself from this new scam?
To protect yourself from spoofing attempts by ill-intentioned people, you should remember the golden rule: you should never disclose your personal data either by phone or email
Know that if the person on the other end of the phone is really your banker, he doesn't need your personal codes and therefore he will never ask you for them!
From the moment someone asks you for your codes (regardless of the means of communication and the pretext used), you can be sure that it is a scam.
Stay on your guard because your gullibility could cost you dearly! Victims of this new scam are lamenting financial losses ranging from a few hundred euros up to 10,000 or 15,000 €.
Also, when you receive a suspicious email, do not click on the links present in the email and do not open the attachments.
At the slightest doubt, have the reflex to contact your bank directly to find out if the message really comes from it.
Also be aware that if you do give your personal codes to a scammer, the bank will consider you responsible for the mistake and will not refund the money lost. You will only be able to file a complaint for fraud.
