Decidedly, the delinquents are not lacking in imagination. After the fake EDF employees, fake chimney sweeps and fake police scam, here are the scammers disguising themselves as neighbors. According to Actu 78, a 79-year-old man living in the Yvelines department was robbed of 5,000 euros. He says that a man would have introduced himself as his new downstairs neighbor, telling him that he would have been the victim of a flood. For the moment, nothing abnormal: the stranger just wants to “take a look, to find the origin of the disaster” explains the old man to the police.
Then the scammers turn on the taps to pretend there is a leak. Discreetly, they turn off the landline phone and ask the victim to put them in contact with a plumber, for “one euro”. They take out a terminal and make it do its code, which they now know. The rest is routine: they steal the bank card later and steal money from him. It is a well-established system: the victim is spotted well before, generally an elderly person, in a supermarket and then followed to his home.
For starters, avoid letting strangers into your home without a reason, let alone without a document proving the reason for their visit. When you make a payment by credit card, you must always hide your confidential code. Finally, in case of theft or in doubt, do not wait, and call the gendarmerie who will be able to direct you and possibly prevent the scam.
