Bank impersonation scam in France: Briton reveals red flags
Reader Deirdre Rankin, 79, lost thousands to scammer
Deirdre Rankin was targeted by scammers posing as Crédit Agricole and Wise agents
Ken stocker/Shutterstock
A Connexion reader who was tricked out of thousands of euros by a scammer has revealed the red flags she missed.
Briton Deirdre Rankin, 79, who lives just outside Bordeaux, received a phone call in August 2025 from a man claiming to be from her bank, Crédit Agricole.
He said her account had been compromised and that she needed to increase her insurance cover. At the time, she was paying €15 a month for account insurance.
The man spoke French and English and suggested screen-sharing to make the process easier.
“I know alarm bells should have started ringing, but to my regret they didn’t. As with all these fraudsters, he was very professional, persuasive and manipulative,” Mrs Rankin said.
Believing she was protecting her Crédit Agricole account, she followed his instructions and transferred money into a separate account, ultimately losing around €4,000. The bank eventually reimbursed her €300 after she referred the case to the mediator.
Scammer targets Wise account
It was a different story with her Wise account, which held a €22,000 inheritance from her late husband.
Claiming that the Wise account had also been compromised, the fraudster convinced her to follow the same steps and drained the account.
“I immediately notified both banks and cancelled my cards. Wise was initially helpful and proactive, but then said it had been my fault as I had set up transfers,” said Mrs Rankin.
“What the fraudster did was open a lot of different accounts in my name and transferred the money to them. As soon as the transfers were complete, he closed the accounts so Wise could not access them.”
She filed a police report as soon as possible, but nothing has come of it.
A Wise spokesperson said: “This sophisticated impersonation scam demonstrates the complex tricks and social engineering used by scammers and the lengths that criminals will go to separate people from their money.”
Wise warned it is “highly unusual” for a bank to demand payment into a separate account belonging to an individual or business.
“If someone asks you to share security codes or one-time passcodes given to you via your bank or financial institution over the phone, it is a major red flag indicating a scam. Hang up immediately, and if you have shared any details, contact your financial institution so they can keep your account safe.”
Wise also encourages scam victims to report incidents to local police, as Mrs Rankin did.
Its website reminds customers that they are “responsible for making sure the recipient is legitimate before making a transfer”.
Unlike in some countries, banks in France are not always required to reimburse customers who have fallen victim to scams.
In January 2025, a court ruled that a scam victim’s bank did not have to reimburse stolen money because the account owner had shown “gross negligence”, as the email at the heart of the scam was “manifestly fraudulent”.
