A trap that lasted two hours. Adélie*, a 22-year-old student, was the victim of credit card fraud last week. “It all started when I received a call showing my bank number,” says the young woman. On the other end of the line, “a lady introduces herself to me as a banking advisor. It has all my information, my name, my first name, my address, and even the 4 digits of my bank card…”.
Adélie is therefore confident. “She explains to me that my bank suspects fraudulent transactions on my account and asks me if I am the originator… all while announcing astronomical sums. She tells me that she is going to block everything, uses banking terms, so I am not suspicious,” continues the young woman. The fake advisor then asks him to “validate codes by SMS to block the famous operations”. The student does not know it yet, but the codes and confirmations she has just given actually allow the scammer to validate fraudulent transactions on her accounts.
Increasing practices
Like Adélie, many French men and women are increasingly victims of these scams. The Banque de France indicates that payment fraud increased by 16.9% in volume and 5.4% in value in the first half of 2023.
Some 4.1 million fraudulent transactions (+16.9% compared to the first half of 2022) representing a total loss of 628 million euros (+5.4%) were recorded in the first half of 2023, in a context overall increase in payment volumes (+8%). This represents a drop in the ocean among the 16.1 billion transactions carried out by transfers, direct debits, card payments or even checks over the same period.
According to the latest figures communicated by the institution, the credit card represents 93% of fraud by volume, which can be explained by the fact that it is the “preferred means of payment of the French” (61.9% of transactions). If it remains the most defrauded means of payment in value (256.5 million euros), its share no longer constitutes “only” 42% of the amounts defrauded. Transfers and checks are respectively the origin of 24% and 29% of the amounts defrauded.
Secure card payments
All this data, collected by the Payment Means Security Observatory (OSMP) which brings together, under the aegis of the Banque de France, public authorities, banks and consumers, confirms the importance of securing payments by map. “The Observatory welcomes the drop in the fraud rate on almost all card payment initiation channels,” he declared in a press release.
The organization is delighted “in particular” that “the rate of fraud on Internet payments” continues to decline, thanks to “the implementation of strong authentication”. “Everyday payments”, particularly on traditional terminals, “benefit from a fraud rate which remains very controlled, generally low and stable in the long term”, added Denis Beau, president of the ‘OSMP.
The role of the bank after the scam
“I lost 2,000 euros in this story, but my bank does not want to reimburse me, under the pretext that I authorized the withdrawals,” says Adélie, tired. What is the role of the bank with its customer after a scam? According to article 133-18 of the Monetary and Financial Code, the banking establishment must reimburse you immediately the amount debited and any fees, but in certain cases the bank may refuse to reimburse you the entire amount, in particular if she considers and proves serious negligence on the part of her client.
For his part, Denis Beau called on banks to “continue their efforts” to reduce this fraud by encouraging the withdrawal of checkbooks from branches, a more secure method than sending them. He also asked them to “simplify the procedures” for filing an opposition, recommending handling “as fluid as on the card” and without “excessive formality”, with some banks still requiring the sending of a registered letter. .
*The first name has been changed
2024-02-03 15:09:51
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