The fake bank adviser scam
The most ruinous, because it comes through a convincing human voice.
It starts with an SMS flagging a suspicious transaction on your account, then continues over the phone: a caller presents themselves as a member of your bank's security department, cites your name, sometimes your latest transactions, and invites you to validate a cancellation. What they get you to validate is in fact an outgoing transfer. It's the fraud with the highest average loss, precisely because the human voice disarms the wariness the SMS alone would have triggered.
How this scam works
The SMS is just the hook: it plants worry and lends credibility to the call that follows. The caller can display your branch's real number, a technical trick now commonplace among fraudsters. They then ask you to read out the confirmation code received by SMS, or to validate a notification in your banking app. This code or this validation cancels nothing: they authorise the fraudulent transaction.
How to recognise it
- You're asked to pass on a code received by SMS, whereas no adviser needs that code.
- You're pressed to act immediately, and discouraged from calling your branch back yourself.
- You're invited to validate a notification in the app to cancel a transaction.
- The number displayed is your bank's, which proves nothing: the caller ID can be spoofed.
What to do after receiving this message
- 1
Hang up without hesitation
Ending the exchange has no consequence if the call was legitimate. The speed of the conversation is the fraudster's main weapon.
- 2
Call your bank back via its official contact details
Dial the number on your card or in your app, never the one from the SMS or the automatic callback in the call log.
- 3
Freeze the card if you shared a code
Ask for immediate blocking and for the transactions to be contested. Timing makes all the difference.
- 4
Report the SMS to 33700
The original message is part of a campaign: reporting it helps cut the line at the source.
The reflexes to avoid absolutely
- •Never read out a confirmation code received by SMS, to anyone, including someone presenting themselves as your bank.
- •Never validate a notification in your banking app during a call you didn't initiate.
- •Never make a "security" transfer to a supposedly protected account: that account is the fraudster's.
Your frequently asked questions
Can my bank call me about a suspicious transaction?
Yes, but it will never ask you for a confirmation code, a password, or to validate a transaction during the call.
Is a refund still possible after validation?
It depends on the context and your bank's assessment, then, in case of disagreement, on the banking ombudsman: contest in writing and without delay, as time works against you.
Envoyer SMS Gratuit has no connection with the organisations cited on these pages, mentioned only because scammers usurp their name. Our service is, moreover, limited to personal and occasional sends, entirely free: it broadcasts neither campaign nor commercial message, and therefore cannot be the origin of a fraudulent SMS received under our name or that of a third party.
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