the government warns of the resurgence of fake banking advisors

The number of scams or attempts is increasing, according to the Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr platform, and the fight against this phenomenon is very difficult to put in place.

This phenomenon of fake bank advisors benefits from the rise in the digitalization of society, from economic actors, including businesses, to individuals. There is an internet platform set up by the State to raise awareness of digital risks and help victims. This platform called Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr published its annual report on Tuesday March 5. In 2023, nearly 280,000 assistance requests were recorded, or 12% more than in 2022. The number of readers of pages dedicated to fraud increased by 80%.

These fake bank advisors are very well organized scammers. An email with the logo of a bank, an insurer or a credit operator is sent to an individual or a company, claiming to update bank details. You should definitely not respond or click on attachments which are real suckers of personal data.

In other cases, the criminals spoof the customer service number of the future victim’s bank and, once contact is established with the latter, the interlocutor pushes them to validate online purchases on Amazon or worse, money transfers. Once again, you should never continue the conversation with this pseudo advisor and call your bank directly to find out if this call really comes from your account manager.

The trick is big, but unfortunately it still works far too often with people or companies who think they will never be the target of this type of embezzlement.

The authorities fear a rise in power with the Olympics

We are no longer involved in small acts of malevolence, but facing operations mounted by mafia organizations. Moreover, the term “mafia” is employed by Jérôme Notin, the director of the Cybermalveillance platform. But it is difficult to estimate how many people are behind these scams. To which must be added ransomware, programs introduced into the computers of companies or institutions and which block internal IT by demanding a ransom to restart the systems. Attacks up sharply by 36% over one year in communities.

This year, the authorities’ biggest fear is the rise in scams during the Olympic Games, such as false links offering free places to create chaos in the organization. The government is calling for a surge of vigilance from all of us.