In anticipation of its scheduled movement for September, Stella* decided to order a bit. Neither one nor two, the young woman decides to sell her table in Leboncoin for one hundred euros, everywhere.
“Very fast, I had an offer at the price,” recalls the young woman, who sells an article on the platform for the first time. Enthusiast, click on the user’s offer to accept it. The capture? Actually, it is a fraudulent link that returns Stella to a false site.
“Congratulations! You have made a sale with Leboncoin,” said the site, which takes the name and graphic letter of the classified ADS platform. “To confirm the transaction, click on the button and follow the indicated stages.”
A duration scam
As the process progresses, the 27 -year -old is invited to fill the information on her credit card and even her connection identifiers to her bank to “validate and ensure payment.” And this is where the trap closes. “I do it (…) It is a supreme stupidity. In precipitation, I even gave a password to my bank. I thought it had to be done to transfer the 100 euros,” deplores the young woman. In a few minutes, all their personal data are sent to the false site.
“Transfer in progress,” announces the platform. A few minutes later, your phone rings. A false advisor from Leboncoin claims to help him end the transaction. “I thought I was going to take five minutes. But there was always another step to do. I kept telling him that he had to go to work, but he didn’t listen,” Stella explains. The call will not end up lasting about thirty minutes.
The False Leboncoin advisor encourages him to download Orange Money Europe, a money transfer application that is usually used by scammers. Then he asks him to meet 450 euros through the application to make “a simulation.” To “demonstrate your good faith”, the scammer sends 450 euros to his personal account. “After verification, there was the amount in my account,” Stella said. Later he will discover that the amount had simply transferred from his joint account to his individual account.
After late for a professional meeting, Stella does not notice the deception. Then, in precipitation, she runs. She downloads the application and is even forced to read a text aloud in a speaker. “I found it weird. But they exercised so much pressure that I ended up doing it,” Stella admits, worried that his voice was diverted. “They really manage to return your brain.”
“I felt that I was caught”
Before doing the transfer, one last detail alerts it. The buyer is in Ivory Coast. “From the beginning, it seemed suspicious. So, when I see ‘Ivory Costa’, I hang directly,” he recalls.
A gesture far from pleased the false Leboncoin advisor who calls the young woman about twenty times. “He harassed me,” Stella recalls. Under pressure and worried, she decides to call the one who pretended to be the buyer to verify her good faith.
“I really wanted to believe them,” he says. Stella had also reviewed her profile on the resale site. The man shows 5 stars in Leboncoin. “But he continued rejecting my brain.” Worse, threatens to file a complaint against her and “go to the police.” “I was crying. It made me feel guilty of crying. He even told me that I stole it because the platform did not want to return its 100 euros if I did not send the 450 euros to finish the process.”
Blackmail and psychological pressure
By increasingly registering the trap in which it is locked, Stella decides to verify her bank accounts. When opening her application, the young woman freezes. Your account is zero. The Crook withdrew almost 10,000 euros, present in his account to pay the work in the new apartment.
“I am panic. I tell myself: I lost everything,” Stella explodes. Angustia, the young woman remembers the false advisor … who tries to make her sing. “He explains that I steal 450 euros to the business and that I have to return the amount to find all my money,” he explains.
Stella tries to negotiate and explains that she feels very bad and, above all, that she is pregnant. “I had nothing to do. Naively, I told myself that knowing that, I was going to stop.” In the end, he finally decides to meet 450 euros, as requested. “I felt it was blackmail. But I wanted to do everything possible to recover the money in my account.”
The buyer of the table ensures that 100 euros for the furniture. And this is where Stella discovers the deception. All money movements in their account were false. “I had simply transferred the money from my individual account to my joint account with my boyfriend. The 10,000 have always been in my account. And they never sent me 450 euros,” she says. “In precipitation, I haven’t seen anything!”
A “quite frequent” situation
The 450 euros fired by Stella in criminals are fine and well lost. “I blame myself a lot,” he slides. The young woman blocks her card, changes her identifiers and, above all, goes to the police station to file a complaint. An “excellent reflection” according to Maître Joceyn Ziegler, lawyer of the Paris bar, specialized in banking law, fraud in cryptographic money and commercial law.
Present a complaint and enter your bank
“The first thing to do is go and present a complaint for fraud, breach of trust and diversion of fundamental,” he says. In France, only 5% of cases are resolved through the criminal procedure. “It is almost certain that there will be a classification without monitoring. But it is still necessary,” said the lawyer, who most recommends that the victims resort to parallel procedures.
Victims can confiscate their bank establishment. “It is assumed that the individual’s bank contact him in case of an abnormal financial movement to ask him a series of questions and warn him. If that has not been done, the individual can put his bank establishment in lack of surveillance, information and security,” specifies Maître Ziegler. But, again, the procedures rarely end. Therefore, the lawyer advises seizing the bank’s mediator. In most cases, the victim is reimbursed.
To avoid being in this situation, Maître Ziegler advises not to leave the site of Leboncoin. “If the financial movement leaves the site, Leboncoin does not disconnect from his responsibility. He should never click on an external link.” A Council also stands out for the second -hand platform that warns all sellers through an emerging window when an article is exposed.
Once on the external site, “99% of the fraudulent time”, several indications allow to identify the scams. Users can, for example, verify the URL of the site, obtain the site, spelling sentences or legal notices. Another possibility, copy and paste the site url into a current tool to judge your reliability. There are several, such as France Verif and Scamdoc. These free tools allow you to get a trust score
For his part, Stella is still waiting for a response from his bank’s mediator. The table was finally sold for 50 euros.
* Modified name
Source: BFM TV
