Personal training account scams, SMS parcel scams, false messages from the Minors Protection Brigade… These phishing attempts are on the increase in France and the victims are more and more numerous. Getting informed remains the best way to fight against this scourge.
There are countless phishing campaigns that all aim to extract confidential information from their victims, usually bank details. The French are increasingly affected by the scourge of phishing which takes several forms, each more insidious than the other.
Vigilance is key
One now well known is the personal training account (CPF) scam. The scammers harass people by phone and text to enroll in bogus training paid for with money available on the CPF. These scams also attempt to retrieve account credentials to charge training fees.
Jean-Jacques Latour, expertise manager of the government platform cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, reveals to The Dispatch that 14,300 people have been victims of these CPF scams since 2019. The sums stolen in this way are significant: 16 million euros. At the start of the year, fake package SMS messages also abound: the victims receive an SMS message from, supposedly, a carrier like La Poste.
Here, the scammer asks to pay for shipping or postage. In this period when there are many online purchases, many scam attempts are unfortunately successful. There are also those famous (fake) e-mails sent by the Brigade for the protection of minors which announce to the recipient that he has been guilty of extremely serious offenses (pedophilia, child pornography, etc.).
⚠️ Beware of fake emails from the Minors Protection Brigade (BPM) have been identified!
If the email was NOT sent from an address ending in @ https://t.co/SazhZM8nRs ➡️ fraudulent email!Do not call the BPM, investigations are already underway. pic.twitter.com/u4ouYoM1Ih
— Prefecture of Police (@prefpolice) October 1, 2020
Here too, it is a question of recovering bank details to pay a fine. The French are nevertheless increasingly alert to these phishing attempts: “ approximately 2.5 million visitors visited cybermalveillance.gouv.fr in 2021 “, indicates Jean-Jacques Latour, including 1.3 million to consult content relating to phishing.
