Retailers, many excited by the prospect of the Paris Olympics, are being targeted by scammers. Individuals offer them fake food truck locations, by e-mail or by mail, for thousands of euros.
The judicial police are issuing the alert. It warns against a series of scams considered sophisticated targeting restaurateurs and merchants, to whom thugs claim to offer exclusive locations on the sites of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Discovered at the end of last year, the fraud is gaining in scale and affects food artisans based in the Paris region, Marseille and Nantes. Each time, they earn thousands of euros on the backs of traders.
The authorities invite traders to carefully check the domain and extension of emails received
Magali Caillat, deputy director of the fight against financial crime (SDLCF), emphasizes that the first reports were made in the Paris region. To lure traders into the trap, scammers contact them by email but also by post, using falsified documents, which directly imitate the official communication media of COJOP, the organizing committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. .
The victims are each time seduced by alleged sales locations on the Olympic sites, and are then encouraged to pay a deposit, which can range from 5,000 to 7,000 euros. However, COJOP reminds us never to launch any direct approach to professionals. Generally, candidates are invited to respond to calls for tenders through the Maximilien portal, which was created to facilitate access for small and medium-sized businesses to public contracts in relation to the Olympic deadline.
Commissioner Caillat warns against domains and extensions used by scammers, ending with “@france-paris2024.org”, which is used by bandits to trap targets via email. Only the official “@paris2024.org” is trustworthy. The police officer also emphasizes that no deposit is required for the rental of official stands. Billing is done after operation in the form of a fee based on turnover.
The scam is allegedly sponsored by the group behind the “president scam”
To try to stem the phenomenon, several investigations have been launched. Arrests took place, and criminal complaints were notably filed by Paris 2024. In the Paris region, there have already been around fifteen complaints. Among the suspects arrested, we find a Spanish individual. This is all that has leaked so far.
The commissioner believes that the sponsors of these scams come from the same delinquent community, of Franco-Israeli origin, which already practices the famous “president scam”, or false transfer scam that we spoke to you about at the end of last year. It also encourages traders to report the slightest suspicion of fraud to the address [email protected].
According to Magali Caillat, several dozen reports have already been received, which clearly shows the importance of collaboration between the authorities and entrepreneurs, to counter this fraud which, however, has not taken anything away from the Olympic values.
Source : France 3 Regions
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