Scam email alert for clients of three leading French banks
Fraudsters link to bank’s genuine website at some points, making scam look legitimate
Never click on any links in emails such as this. Always navigate to the genuine login page
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Clients of three major banks in France are being warned to watch out for a scam email inviting customers to log in to their online accounts.
The scam is affecting customers of Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, and Crédit Mutuel.
Scam emails have been arriving in clients’ inboxes since the start of November, reports Numerama.
The emails claim that recipients have a new message in their personal online account, and then invites the recipient to click on a link to log in.
This link appears to take the customer to the bank’s login page, but in reality, the page belongs to the scammers.
It asks the recipient to enter their bank details and personal information such as their name and address.
A page then appears saying that the customer will shortly be contacted by a bank adviser. It then links to the bank's genuine website, making it appear more legitimate.
If you hand your contact details over, scammers can potentially use it to access your bank account, making transactions without your knowledge or taking money from the account.
Read also: Government warning about scammers pretending to be French authorities
How to avoid the scam
If you are a customer of the affected banks, be alert to any random emails that claim to come from them.
Also:
Never click on any links in emails such as this. Always navigate to the genuine login page yourself, and log in from there to check that the alert is legitimate.
Be alert to any clues that the page or email may not be genuine. For example, in this scam, the domain location of the website is Spanish. Instead of ‘.fr’, the site will display the domain ‘.es’.
Look for clues that the emails are not genuine. These emails tend to come from an address with the phrase ‘hotam-ovdim’. Clearly, this is not a genuine French banking domain.
If you are not sure, compare the email address to previous genuine emails from your bank, to check for any suspicious signs.
If you spot a scam, you can report it to the website Signal Spam.
Read also: How do I report scam or spam emails in France?
Read also: New way to check if a website or email is fraudulent in France
If you believe you have fallen victim to the scam, and entered your details on a fake page, contact your bank immediately to ask them to limit your account, stop any suspicious transactions, and secure your details.
