Neobanks, a new Eldorado for crooks?

Vincent Baressi thought he would make incredible profits. A few months ago, a so-called advisor suggested that he invest on a platform that was supposed to help him earn a lot of money. The scam is well done, every day, the retiree can even check the progress of his earnings on the Internet.

Between October 5 and December 7, I had won 4084 euros, until the day you log in and the account is deactivated

Vincent Baressi, victim of financial scam

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In the space of two months, the retiree made two payments into an account hosted by an establishment he does not know, called Treezor.

Treezor is not behind the scam. It is a monetary establishment approved by the banking authority – the ACPR – which notably provides payment solutions to around a hundred neobanks which do not have approval. Iban, RIB, enough to allow them to receive funds from any client legally.

Presented as the nugget of finance, Treezor is however indirectly and at its expense, associated with dozens of scams and says it makes its customers aware of the risk of fraud.

In the event of fraud, it is essential to react quickly with your bank as well as by filing a complaint in order to be able to (…) recover the funds

Treezor Group

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Many scammers use Treezor

How ? In particular, by creating fictitious companies to open accounts and receive funds. To set up their scams, they do not hesitate to use stolen identity papers.

This is what happened to this victim we found. For 3 years, a scammer has been using a copy of his ID card to open online accounts. One of them is hosted by Treezor.

He has already opened 3 accounts with my identity card which is no longer valid. Each time it concerns online banks

Victim of identity theft

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In 40% of financial scams, scammers impersonate someone. Since the explosion of 100% digital banks, the amount of transfer fraud has quadrupled in 5 years, going from 78 million in 2017 to 313 million in 2022.

We interviewed a lawyer who specializes in these financial scams. In Maître Delomel’s office, more than 600 files concern summons from banks for fraud. According to him, Treezor today seems to be one of the preferred banks for scammers to “flee” their victims.

For Treezor bank, we have almost a fifty fraudulent IBANs. We call it the super scam market and we are going to have everything and anything

Maître Arnaud Delomel, Financial lawyer

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Structures that most of the time do not exist, to sell wine, crypto-currencies, parking spaces.

Tens of thousands of euros will quickly arrive in these accounts and will leave just as quickly in countries which will not collaborate. Treezor is criticized for not identifying these suspicious movements which do not correspond to anything

Maître Arnaud Delomel, Financial lawyer

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For its part, the establishment says it cooperates in the fight against fraud, in close collaboration with the authorities.

Treezor strives to provide a robust controls framework to protect its business customers as well as end users.

Treezor Group

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As for the banking authority, the ACPR, it recognizes certain vulnerabilities and claims to carry out regular checks in online establishments. The amount of financial scams is estimated at 500 million euros each year.

AMONG OUR SOURCES