The number of means of payment fraud fell by 3.8% in 2021, but the average amount of damage increased by around 14% to 166 euros, the Banque de France noted on Friday.
The total amount of fraud reached 1.24 billion euros in 2021, an increase of 8.5% at constant methodology and scope.
“Check fraud continues to grow and these are average amounts of several thousand euros, so when the proportion of checks in overall fraud increases, in a very mechanical way, the average amount of fraud also increases“, explained during a press conference Julien Lasalle, secretary of the Observatory for the security of means of payment (OSMP), which brings together the Banque de France, public authorities, banks and consumers. “It’s the same for transfer fraud, where we have a little shudder: it’s a fraud that strikes companies in particular with unit amounts that can be tens or even hundreds of thousands of euros“, although the cases are fortunately few, he continued.
More manipulative crooks
The fraud rate in value of checks is thus 0.079%, i.e. 79 euros defrauded for 100,000 euros paid by this means, while transfer fraud is 0.0007% (70 cents defrauded for 100,000 euros paid) . The card value fraud rate is 0.059%, but the unit amounts defrauded are lower. In addition, the development of strong authentication has made it possible to achieve “a historic lowon internet payment fraud.
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But the increased security of means of payment leads scammers to increasingly use manipulation techniques to induce the victim to make or validate payments themselves, in particular by pretending to be their bank adviser. “The development of these techniques, which we call “manipulation” leads to a gray area with too long repayment terms“, Even to a non-reimbursement, warned the governor of the Banque de France François Villeroy de Galhau, while UFC-Que Choisir filed a complaint against twelve banks at the end of June, on this subject.
“Very often the bank tries to reverse the burden of proof and the consumer is left with the impossible task of demonstrating that he has done nothing.“, denounces the association of consumers Indecosa-CGT (Information and Defense of salaried consumers-CGT). “The bank may be entitled not to reimburse, if it considers that there is gross negligence (loan of its bank card, sharing of confidential elements, validation of operations for example)“, for its part estimated the French Banking Federation (FBF).
“Banks reimburse 85% of the 464 million euros in disputed card transactions, i.e. nearly 400 million euros“, and concerning transfer fraud, it is “fully reimbursed to the customer, in the event that the bank is responsible, i.e. if it makes an error in filling in the details of the beneficiary itself“, adds the FBF, noting that”60% of transfer fraud is due to manipulation or deception“.
This subject of reimbursement or not of the customer will be on the agenda of the OSMP next year, declared François Villeroy de Galhau, so that “we can specify as much as possible what are all the cases, and they are intended to be the majority, of reimbursement by the bank, including in the event of manipulation“. In addition, checksassetsare also made with banks, the governor added, without going into detail.
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