Money never sleeps. And neither do scammers. As the end-of-year celebrations approach, they compete in ingenuity to get their hands on your savings. CPF or Carte Vitale scams, fake bank advisors, cyberattacks… And now: fake tax inspectors.
This is the latest scam. A scammer calls you and pretends to be a tax officer. The individual claims that you are the author of a tax offense. The tone is accusatory, even threatening. Everything is going very quickly, so as not to give you time to come to your senses.
At the end of the line, the scammer tells you that if you do not pay a fine immediately, you risk 2 years from prison. It then asks for your bank details. Or encourages you to make a transfer to a third-party account. Put yourself in order as soon as possible, he insists. Otherwise, you risk getting in trouble with the law.
The string seems a little big. Yet it works. Several victims are already to be deplored in the Manche department, reports France Blue. For the most part, these are elderly people living alone, a population particularly vulnerable to the risk of scams.
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40% of French people have already been recruited
Even in the event of proven tax evasion, the users’ credit card numbers are never requested, recall the tax services of La Manche. In the event of exposure to this type of scam, it is recommended to hang up without disclosing any personal information, then file a complaint and alert your tax office.
Every year, new scams appear. And over time, the scammers become more professional. Their attempts are now more frequent and more sophisticated than before. Result? Nearly 4 out of 10 French people have already suffered a fraudulent debit from their bank account. And 10% of them have even been caught several times.
The Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security (SSMSI), responsible for counting and publishing crimes and offenses recorded by the police and the gendarmerie, thus identified no less than 119,000 scams between August and October 2022. An absolute record, on the rise of 5% compared to the previous three months.
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