Netflix, Vitale card … How to report these fake SMS that are after your bank card

It’s a real epidemic: our mobile lines are flooded with fake text messages sent by scammers pretending to be Netflix, CPAM, Crit’Air and many others. Here’s how to report these messages to prevent them from harming others.

Netflix: Your last payment was declined, please confirm your payment information or your account will be suspended. In recent days, you may have received an SMS of this type, accompanied by a clickable link, from a number in 06 or 07. Or another, inviting you to urgently buy a Crit’Air sticker . Or an invitation from the CPAM to renew your Vitale card.

In any case, distrust: it is about fake SMS, destinies steal money from you. The strategy of the scammers behind the messages is as follows. They start with look for a hook, a pretext likely to provoke an urgent reaction: the fear, for example, of no longer being able to watch your favorite series, or of no longer being able to drive your car, or even of no longer being reimbursed for your health expenses. Then they create a site resembling two drops of water that of the company or institution whose identity they impersonate. Finally they invite you to provide sensitive information: a name, an address, an email address and especially your credit card identifiers. Data that they will then use to debit your account without your knowledgethrough online or in-store purchases, transfers or ATM withdrawals.

In 2020, at least 1.3million households (nearly one in 20) have been victims of a banking scam. The phenomenon is therefore massive and tends to intensify further in 2022, according to the latest statistics from the police and the gendarmerie.

Mobilized mobile operators

Knowing how to spot these frauds is essential. The denounce to prevent others from falling into the trap is equally important. Mobile operators have come together to create the 33700, a service for combating unwanted SMS messages. And it only takes a few seconds.

  • First time: forward the message to number 33700, without adding comments. It’s totally free.
  • Second step: you receive an answer from 33700, which invites you resend phone number who asked you. The report is then terminated.
  • Step three: you can block, from your mobile, the number that sent you the message.

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Your report is then sent to the mobile operator issuing the number used, as well as to your mobile operator. Additions of others, it allows the latter to take the necessary measures: cut the number concernedor even file a complaint with the police.

Last clarification: the 33700 does not only concern attempted scams. You can also use it to report unsolicited commercial messages: a company does not have the right to contact you if you have not given your express agreement to authorize it to do so.

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