No good resolution for scammers. Barely has the year 2023 begun than new scams are surfacing on the street, by telephone and in mailboxes. On the Internet, bandits do not hesitate to impersonate official organizations to steal personal information, your bank details or, quite simply, money. Recently, Le Courrier Indépendant was alerted to a new type of scam that a reader almost fell victim to.

This resident of Loudéac, in Brittany, received the following message, signed “the collection service”: “Contravention. French Republic. On 11/13/2022 at 8:27 a.m., your vehicle was checked at 57 km/h (retained speed of 51 km/h) on a lane limited to 50 km/h. Here are more details on your ticket of €47. In the event of non-payment within 48 hours, the amount of the ticket will be automatically increased, you will no longer have the possibility of contesting it, and your file will be transmitted to the tribunal de grande instance”. Here, the criminals play on the anxiety-inducing nature of the news so that the target does not have time to think, and pays quickly so as not to get into trouble.

Warned of the circulation of this email, the gendarmerie of Loudéac gave five tips for spotting this scam and, above all, for not being fooled. Here they are :