Fraudulent text messages continue to claim victims on a daily basis. This is the case of Guillaume (assumed name), physical education teacher near Verviers, who was robbed of 15,000 euros just before the Easter weekend.
“I have just been the victim of a theft of €15,000 by a fraudulent SMS. I find that there is not enough prevention in relation to this kind of situation”he wrote to us via the orange Alert us button.
The scam took place on Thursday April 14th. The young man receives an SMS, but is not suspicious, because it seems to come from the Ministry of Finance.
“I clicked on the link, I didn’t pay attention. I knew there were scams in Itsme, but not in Financesays William. I was offered a refund of 278 euros. I’m a physical education teacher, I don’t always have a job so I know that with CAPAC, there are sometimes late payments. Or the contributions, etc. So I was a little naive, I clicked on the link and gave my card number. That’s where I got screwed”.
With this simple card number, the crooks managed to steal a total of 14,500 euros from Guillaume. They managed to take control of the personal space of the 27-year-old young man’s banking application, which gave them access to his other accounts, and in particular to transfer money from his account. savings account.
Money immediately spent on online purchases
Fortunately, the bank managed to stop certain operations remotely, such as the 8,000 euros that the scammers tried to transfer to another account. The rest was spent by the criminals who made purchases online.
“As there is a limit on each card, they made withdrawals in different stores in Antwerp with the different accounts. Purchases of 500 euros, 2,000 euros and in all, there were 6,500 euros”laments William.
It was the next day, Friday April 15, while going shopping, that Guillaume noticed that his cards were all blocked and that he no longer had access to his banking application. Even his Itsme account has been blocked. “I rang the bank which told me: you have been robbed”he says.
“We had to go visit a house”
A very sad misadventure when the young man and his partner are currently looking for a house to buy.
“I was in tears, we had to go and visit a house… We canceled the visit because without 15,000 euros, the bank will not accept to lend us so much money. difficult, but I want to testify and help people who are a little naive like me so that they don’t get fooled”he says once more.
In total, 14,400 euros have disappeared from the accounts of the Verviétois. From this sum, the teacher should recover the 8,000 euros that the thugs tried to transfer to another account. “There are steps with the bank which take weeks, even months, to recover them”.
He is well aware that this money will be difficult to recover and has done everything necessary to hope for a happy sequel to his story.
“I have filed a complaint with my bank, but I have to wait for news from a company that deals with this type of fraud to see whether or not I should file a complaint with the police”he explains once more.
He tries to tell himself that“we must continue to live and that it is only money” and will be more suspicious in the future.
“I am not confident anymore”
“I no longer have confidence when I see that with a simple number, you can be fooled… It’s complicated”he concludes.
The SPF Finances reminds that it never contacts an individual by SMS. “Never respond to such requests! The FPS Finances will never ask you for payment via SMS”, they explained recently, during another testimony via Alert us. The same applies when it comes to a transfer in your favour: the FPS Finances will never communicate with you in this way.