Scam: beware of these fake administration sites that steal money from you

False “administrative” sites try to charge for usually free procedures. A scam that claims many victims.

It turns out that on French territory, more and more people are falling victim to a new scam. That of fake sites “ administrative '. The practice is very simple. Criminals create fake sites that attempt to charge for procedures that are usually free. Whether for a passport, a gray card or a Crit'Air sticker. Unfortunately, it turns out that these practices do not seem not always illegal. This is why you have to use common sense to avoid falling into the trap. Our colleagues from Le Parisien recently relayed the testimony of a young man who paid 125 euros to have his passport made. Without paying too much attention to it, he typed “passport creation” in a search engine. By clicking the first link, he was the victim of this scam. We'll explaine everything here !

Scam: fake official sites

The scam of faux sites « administrative has been around for quite some time. It should then be known that this does not reduce the number of victims. Most of the administrative procedures offered are usually free of charge. However, these criminals offer these procedures for a price that may seem “acceptable”. It should be noted that only the site of the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS) offers to complete a pre-application for the creation of a passport. This process then costs 86 euros, the price of the tax stamp. Unfortunately, many people fall into the trap of clicking on the first link offered, without verifying that it is an official site. And this, such as the young man. He trusted the first site which turned out to be one of the official looking websites.

“We are not going to lie to each other, the ANTS site is not the one people know best” , explains a CLCV lawyer. When a site is not known, there is a risk that people will miss it. ' They click on those platforms that have paid to be at the top of an internet search result.” Unfortunately, by doing this, the scams succeed in attracting people and subsequently claiming victims. You must know that this technique requires nothing more than a site with false official airs . Once the site is created and the advertisements launched, it seems difficult not to fall into the trap. This is why the authorities are calling for vigilance. Research should be done before start on the first site to come to do administrative procedures .

Techniques to avoid falling into the trap

These fake administrative sites therefore do not have “no added value”. They manage to attract people to take money from them. Some sites then charge unnecessary fees, but also impose longer waiting times. Nevertheless, other sites are clearly pure scams . The criminals simply seek to have the personal data, the banking data but also the confidence of the victims. Indeed, the creators of these sites only have the ambition to recover a few tens of euros. As well as contact details or personal data of these. A disturbing scam that continues to claim victims.

Our colleagues from Parisian recently donated tools for try to prevent the French from falling into the trap . They then invite the latter to initiate administrative procedures only via the service-public.fr and ants.gouv.fr websites. All other sites are likely to be fake sites or criminals trying to trick you into scamming you. Then p Remember to take your time. Do some research and find the official website made for this purpose. By keeping your critical spirit, you will be able to have your answer directly. Finally, if you really don't know what to do, go to the administration directly.

Source : Boursorama