After several months of investigation, the Swiss and French police made twelve arrests on May 14. This dragnet made it possible to dismantle a network of suspected crooks who practiced the so-called fake banker scam. This gang would have caused more than 400 victims throughout France and the damage they would have suffered would be several hundred thousand euros in total.
It was “Le Progrès” which revealed the large-scale police operation, which mobilized around 80 French gendarmes. The French daily indicates that most of the suspects were arrested in western Lyon, the others having been picked up in Isère, the Loire and Switzerland.
The scam practiced by this gang consisted of contacting victims posing as a banker and making them believe that their account had been hacked. They were thus able to extract their bank card number and various private information, as well as the validation codes which allowed them to make transfers for their benefit. In some cases, the scam went so far as to send a “courier” to the victim’s home to collect the “hacked card” and continue to drain their account.
In addition to the arrest of twelve people, the gendarmes seized vehicles, luxury items and multimedia equipment with a total value of nearly half a million euros. “Le Progrès” mentions cooperation with the Swiss authorities but does not specify the region, nor the number of people arrested in our country.
Several of the suspects have already been brought to justice for organized gang fraud, aggravated money laundering and criminal conspiracy, among other charges.
