As scams become more common and sophisticated, it can be difficult to keep your money safe, with figures showing that 57% of people in France have already come across financial scams*.
This makes it even more crucial to develop some ‘streetwise’ instincts, to reduce your chance of getting caught out, state consumer groups and financial authorities.
“Anyone can be taken in, because the scammers are extremely well prepared,” said Juliette Woods, banking and insurance project manager at consumer advisory group UFC-Que Choisir, to Le Monde, which compiled a list of tips.
Authorities recommend these steps to avoid scammers’ tricks.
1. Keep track of your bank account
Often the first sign that something is wrong is an unexpected or unfamiliar transaction in your account. Checking your account often and becoming familiar with regular payments or debits can help you identify anything suspicious quickly. If you see anything strange, notify your bank as soon as possible.
2. Do not click on links in emails or text messages
This technique is known as ‘phishing’, because it ‘hooks’ victims. Emails and texts can be very convincing, and appear to come from a trusted organisation, delivery company, or bank. Emails that appear to come from the tax authorities or banks have also been reported.
These messages may look very similar to the ‘real thing’, including using the same colours, font, and layout as a genuine message. However, there are often telltale signs that something is amiss, including:
- Spelling errors
- Strange formatting (e.g. stretched or poor quality images)
- Email addresses or website addresses that are not quite right (e.g. laposte-fr.com rather than laposte.fr), or are a jumble of characters
- Asking you to click a link or “confirm details” on a webpage
Clicking on a link in such a message can lead to scammers capturing your bank account login details or other sensitive data.
“It is best never to click on links received by email or text message,” said Pierre Bienvenu, from the Banque de France, to Le Monde.
“You can report these fraudulent attempts by forwarding the text message to 33700; an automated message will then ask you for the sender's number.”
3. Watch out for fake advisors
Beware phone calls from people pretending to be from your bank. Many banks will never call you, but will send a text message asking you to call them if necessary.
Genuine banks will ask you to dial the number yourself, or find it on your card, and will never ask you to click on a link or pre-texted number. In some rare cases, they will text beforehand.
In contrast, scammers will call you, often out of the blue and without warning. They may sound very professional and credible, and they often say they are from the anti-fraud department. This alarms the victim, making them more vulnerable to falling for the scheme.
“They play on the urgency of the situation by saying that the bank suspects fraudulent transactions. They ask the victim to make a transfer to an ‘anti-fraud’ account to keep the money safe, or they ask for the SMS authentication code needed to validate a card payment,” said Ms Woods.
Never transfer any money to another account on the request of someone else, and never give an SMS or authentication code to someone else either. Your bank will never ask you to do this.
“An advisor will never ask you for your login details, because your bank already has access to your account,” said Mr Bienvenu. “If in doubt, hang up immediately and call your bank's usual number.”
It is always a good idea to check the call has ended properly, and to dial on a different phone if possible, to check that the line is genuine.
In some cases, scammers may even send a courier to your home to “collect your card” for “security reasons”. Your bank will never do this.
4. Do not fall for ‘urgency’
In a similar vein, many other types of scammers will also play on your vulnerability by bringing a sense of urgency to a situation.
They might pretend to have inside or expert information on publicly traded companies, by pretending to be knowledgeable and experienced on a social media post, for example. The victim is encouraged to buy in order to profit from the upcoming surge in the share price, and urged to do so fast "before the news breaks".
Victims may pay the scammer who claims to be able to invest for them, but who will in fact keep the money.
5. Never cash a cheque for someone else
Just as you should never take something on to a plane for someone else, nor should you agree to cash a cheque or move money on behalf of someone else.
Some social media posts, which can be very convincing, offer potential victims a commission in exchange for cashing cheques. Sometimes scammers take a longer term approach, finding and building a relationship with people on dating websites or apps, and later asking them to cash cheques.
This can lead to the scammer receiving their money but the person who cashed the cheque having to meet the bill when it is rejected by the bank.
“Cashing cheques for others is prohibited, illegal and dangerous,” said Mr Bienvenu.
6. If it sounds too good to be true…it probably is
Get rich quick schemes are usually scams, tempting people with easy money.
Schemes may, for example, offer people the opportunity to buy Bitcoin at a reduced rate, or subscribe to a bank account offering 8% interest. Other attractive offers include ‘green’ investments or investments in diamonds. They may appear very professional and convincing.
Subscribing to these offers are usually just transfers to the scammer’s account.
You can take several steps to avoid being taken in, said Anne Delannoy, head of financial alerts at the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), including:
Check that the entity is not on the blacklists of the Autorité des marchés financiers (which includes companies that have received a warning, or have been found to be impersonating a genuine authority)
Consult the Regafi register of financial agents, and the AMF's whitelist, to check if the operator offering you an investment is authorised to carry out its activity
Check the AMF’s Protect Epargne website, which includes blacklists and whitelists, as well as offering further advice on how to avoid financial scams.
Remember: if it sounds too good to be true…it probably is.
7. Ignore ‘get your money back’ advisors
The AMF calls this ‘a scam on a scam’: the victim of an initial scam is defrauded a second time, sometimes by the same scammer.
Similarly to the fake bank advisor scam, above, the fraudster pretends to be a solicitor or even the AMF's own fund recovery service. They offer to help the victim recover their money or obtain compensation, and ask for a small sum of money to be paid to start the procedure.
“You have to be very vigilant: scams based on impersonating an institution rely on fake emails and fake websites, sometimes including the names of real AMF employees,” said Ms Delannoy. “In reality, the AMF never contacts victims directly [in this way].”
*Figure from a BVA Xsight study for the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), October 2024.
