Fraud by a fake banker, known as “spoofing”, is probably the oldest method of bank fraud. Unfortunately, the principle is a recipe that criminals have tried well: pretend to be an employee of the victim’s bank and claim that fraud has been detected on their account.
Under this pretext, fraudsters will try to recover valuable confidential codes (card number, codes, etc.) in various ways in order to be able to withdraw funds or make online purchases. For this, they use all the personal data of their victims, which they previously bought expensively on unsolicited sites on the dark web or through social networks, such as Telegram.
In the case, which was broken up near Lyon, the fraudsters appear to have reached a worrying level of sophistication. With a well-crafted script, they managed to gain the trust of the victims over the phone before releasing them from their bank details. Some did not hesitate to send an accomplice to collect the credit card directly from the home of the people who were defrauded. With their loot and bank details in their pockets, fraudsters then just had to help themselves straight from the source, via online purchases or cash withdrawals.
Approximately 80 law enforcement agents also seized vehicles, luxury items and other multimedia equipment, all estimated at nearly €500,000 stolen from 400 identified victims.