Scams and fraudulent practices: a new prevention guide

In implementing its prevention policy, the national task force, which brings together all the government services, has published a scam prevention guide divided into 16 factsheets on online scams. Each card deals with a fraudulent practice (online shopping scams, fake transfer orders, impersonation of professionals, phishing ...). It includes a definition of the scam involved, how it will work and what recommendations to follow if you become a victim.

This guide identifies recent mass scams that have been used extensively:

• Personal Training Account (PTA) scams;
• Check cashing scam (represents 284 million euro in the first half of 2021 according to the Observatory on the security of means of payment);
• Identity theft (surging).

The guide also warns of the dangers of social media. These have led to the growth and increase in fraudulent practices on the net. The young public is therefore one of the priority targets of these scams.

The platform THESEE was created in March 2022 to report an online scam and file a complaint. To date, almost 23,000 reports have been received.