9.52pm by Gianni CASTILLO
The number of victims of banking scams in Brittany continues to increase, with a high concentration in Ille-et-Vilaine. According to recent figures, the department has recorded a 37% increase in cases in two years. Young professionals are now the preferred target of scammers.
Bank scams are increasing at a frightening speed in Brittany, particularly in Ille-et-Vilaine. In 2023, more than 6,600 victims were recorded, compared to 4,800 in 2021. According to the authorities, this 37% increase underlines the urgency of collective awareness in the face of these online and telephone frauds.
A worrying increase in bank scams
Maître Arnaud Delomel, lawyer at the Rennes bar, specializing in financial scams, explains to us which scams are the most popular: fake advisor fraud first, will materialize through a link “which we will receive by email or SMS, or directly by call from someone who claims to be an advisor to your bank. Their ploy will suggest that you are experiencing fraud on your account, and he will succeed in infiltrating your accounts, and extracting money from you. It’s the most popular scam!
The other part of the scams that we will have a lot of, and here we change dimension, these are all fake financial investment scamsfake passbooks, fake investments in cryptocurrency, etc. The scheme is more elaborate on the part of the scammers, since we set up websites, false contracts, there are accounts opened abroad to allow victims to pay, etc.”
Credit : Gianni Castillo
How to fight against this scourge?
Faced with this wave of scams, the authorities and experts encourage vigilance and it is recommended to never share your banking information online or by telephone, and to check the authenticity of the messages received.
Banks, for their part, must strengthen their security systems, in particular by improving systems for detecting suspicious transactions.
“There is two diagramsdiagram no. 1 where a person will think about investing in a financial product, a booklet, in cryptocurrency and will voluntarily make a payment transaction. To stop international scams, we are going to use an extrajudicial logic, and it is political.
Scheme No. 2 of fake advisor fraud where you get tricked and have funds taken from you without wanting to… and in this case, you turn against your bank. The bank must reimburse you for amounts linked to unauthorized payment transactions, unless the person was grossly negligent, and it is up to the bank to prove this. If I put aside this hypothesis, all other cases mean that your bank must reimburse you when you are the victim of unauthorized payment transactions.”
Credit : Gianni Castillo
A similar situation in the other Breton departments?
If Ille-et-Vilaine is particularly affected, the other Breton departments are not left out…”On a au cabinet, continues Me Delomel, several hundred files across the country… There is a significant and worrying increase in Ille-et-Vilaine but I can easily see it in the other Breton departments, there is an increase in Brittany which is perhaps more significant than in certain other departments afterwards, the crooks will not go specifically target a department or region. They’ll have lists of customers to call and they start their work day by calling 50 or 100 people, if they scam one or two, that’s their job.“
Credit : Gianni Castillo
Contrary to popular belief, it is not the elderly who are most often affected, but rather young working people between 25 and 34 years old.
