Scam: Beware of this text message about 'late payment' which can cost you dearly

More and more SMS scams are starting to spread, a new one is targeting parking fines.

Recently, the National Agency for the Automated Processing of Infractions, also called ANTAI, alerted to a new scam via SMS. It turns out that for many months now, SMS have remained the means for many scammers to trap victims. . We'll explaine everything here.

Le phishing

Since the first confinements, scams that go through the internet, emails or SMS have continued to develop. Indeed, when the French all remain closed at home, it seems quite easy to trap them . Scammers know that by not being able to go out, many people would spend time on the internet, or even have packages delivered. . So many good parcel delivery scams could start.

In general, the victim received a message saying that the package had a problem. Either the delivery could not take place, or the package is too heavy, etc. Any excuse seems good to ask the victim to click on the link to solve the problem. Thus, the scam generally did not ask much. A few euros to reschedule a delivery or pay a surplus. But in reality, the goal is to steal the bank details and not the requested amount.

Because of this, many victims lost a lot of money. There is the example of a couple in Vaucluse who lost nearly 12,000 euros. From now on, this retired couple finds themselves with a few centimes on their booklet A, but nothing more . A way to ruin people's lives. Especially since banks seem normally required to reimburse customers, facing the number of scams , they avoid. Many banks plead the victim's aggravated negligence in order not to reimburse them .

The different reasons for a scam

Among SMS scams, there is a way of doing things that comes up very often. It is generally seen that scams use an urgent and often official reason to urge the victims. We find the example of the vital card scam . You receive an SMS to tell you that your vital card is no longer up to date and that you are therefore no longer covered. To update it, you have to pay a few euros on a site.

We also find the scam that targets the identity card. Indeed, the new identity cards are in credit card format. So, people are texting to say that everyone should switch to this new format now. And to have it, you have to click on a link, enter the contact details and personal data. It seems like a jackpot for scammers who have all your information. The government therefore recalled that in any case, everyone is going to have this new format, as soon as the identity card expires and they renew it.

We also learned, especially in the Paris region the Crit’Air sticker scam . You are asked to order a vignette for your car in order to be able to drive in certain areas. And again, what really interests them is your bank details. Moreover, the Hauts de France seem also targeted by a scam who uses the energy crisis. An SMS circulates asking to click on a link to save nearly 70% of energy consumption . Again, don't click.

The parking fine scam

But, ANTAI warned about a brand new scam . The parking fines. The principle always remains the same as for the scams above. The SMS that the victim receives informs him of a late payment of a fine for parking . At the beginning of the message, we can see “ Info ANTAI ” as if to give credibility to the SMS. Once you click on the link, you arrive at a site similar to that of ANTAI, but there is nothing left of it. Because, in the link, we can therefore read https://dossier-antai-gouv.info. Bien sûr, ce lien reste tout bidon, car un site du gouvernement contient le fameux “. gouv.fr ”. To pay your fines, it remains “ amendes.gouv.fr”.

Source : BFM TV