Fall has arrived, but unlike tree leaves, scammers don’t fall. On the contrary, if we are to believe the number of requests they make, we could even be led to believe that they are multiplying.
SMS, calls, emails… Their methods are multiple and are becoming ever more perfect, making the task complicated for those who are victims. Whether for emails or SMS, it is not always easy to detect a scam at first glance.
By email, the most common practice used in this type of scam is phishing, also known as phishing. According to the government site specializing in cyber maliciousness, it is “a fraudulent technique intended to lure an Internet user to induce him to communicate personal data by pretending to be a known service or a relative.”
These emails are designed to be almost similar to the ones they are impersonating. So much so that it is sometimes difficult to differentiate a message from Chronopost from that of a scammer, for example. However, several clues still make it possible to disentangle the true from the false.
In its guide to preventing scams, the government specifies that it is necessary to be careful of unknown senders and to check the links in the email. “Before clicking on any links, leave your mouse over them. The complete link then appears. Make sure that this link is coherent and points to a legitimate site. Do not trust domain names such as impots.gouvv.fr , impots.gouvfr.biz or infocaf.org instead of www.caf.fr. Also ask yourself the question of the legitimacy of any requests made. As a reminder, “no organization has the right to ask you for your card code blue, your access codes and passwords”. So do not transmit anything confidential, even at the request of an entity that seems to you to be trustworthy and call the service in question to find out if the request has indeed come from their services.
Also watch out for spam. If you see a POP-UP window, never click on the ad, even if the close button is huge. “Always use the cross (X) in the corner,” recommends the scam prevention guide. If the scam you want to report has reached you via spam (spam), go to www.signal-spam.fr.
In order to report these scams, it is important to go to the “PHAROS” platform (for “platform for the harmonization, analysis, cross-checking and orientation of reports”). It is accessible on the site www.internet-signalement.gouv.fr. As the , “this platform makes it possible in particular to report websites whose content is illegal”.
The site specifies that “your report will be processed by a judicial police service specializing in these issues”, the Central Office for the Fight against Crime Related to Information and Communication Technologies (OCLCTIC). “If the reported content is illegal but designed abroad, it is transmitted to Interpol, which directs it to the judicial authorities of the country concerned. These platforms only concern e-mails and websites”, it is specified.
Many fraudulent emails are circulating these days but they often follow the same patterns. Here are the 10 most common scam emails these days.
