Since the start of the health crisis, French household savings have been on the rise, as have attempted scams. Attracted by this surplus of savings, crooks are multiplying their scams, particularly those involving fake savings books.
Fraudulent savings accounts with tempting returns
Between the start of the health crisis, at the end of the first quarter of 2020, and the end of the first quarter of 2021, the French saved 142 billion euros more than usual over the same period. This phenomenon can be explained both by the impossibility of consuming due to containment measures, and by a desire to take shelter in the face of an uncertain economic context.
Fraudsters are well aware of this, and attempts to defraud the French are multiplying, targeting in particular the appeal of the Livret A passbook savings account. Incentives to open bogus savings accounts, offering the same flexibility as the Livret A but with a supposedly much higher return, are on the increase.
The Association de défense des consommateurs de France (ADC France) is currently handling a large number of cases involving fraudulent investments, totaling over 30 million euros since January 1, 2021. In 50% of cases, these scams involve fraudulent savings passbooks, but other bogus products can also be found, such as insurance contracts, payment services and credit.
The proliferation and industrialization of online fraud
Every day, new fraudulent websites appear, and the task of the joint unit of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) is immense: in 2020, the number of fraudulent sites on its blacklist, online at ABEIS (Assurance Banque Epargne Info Service), doubled compared to 2019. 1,200 sites or entities were added last year.
The crooks not only took advantage of the surplus savings, but also of the fact that the French, subject to containment measures, spent much more time at home in 2020, becoming more "available" for cold calling and social networking.
Indeed, scammers no longer hesitate to place advertisements on social networks, or even on the websites of major media outlets, usurping the identity of well-established companies. Savers, lulled into confidence in this way, have no idea that the person they are dealing with is not who they think they are.
The ACPR and AMF are therefore stepping up their efforts to make the French public aware of these online frauds, even if their industrialization, as the ACPR points out, makes the fight against these attempted scams even more complex.