The French are in the sights of cybercriminals. With the countless data leaks recorded last year, hackers are able to set sophisticated traps for Internet users. According to a study by the Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security(New window) (SSMSI), online scams are claiming more and more victims in France. In 2023, scammers trapped more than 400,000 French people. According to the Payment Method Security Observatory report, fraud reached a total of 1.195 billion euros in France in 2023.
In this context, we have listed the seven main tricks used by scammers to achieve their ends. This non-exhaustive list should allow you to spot interactions with a cybercriminal, whether by email, on Facebook, Instagram or by SMS.
AI and deepfakes
To fool their targets, hackers are increasingly turning to generative artificial intelligence. With chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or even personalized AIs tailored for crime, it is possible to write convincing, persuasive content without the slightest spelling mistake. In fact, any hacker can write long messages in impeccable French, even if it is not their mother tongue. So do not trust the way your interlocutor communicates with you.
The rise of AI is also accompanied by an explosion of deepfakes, content manipulated by algorithms. Armed with an image generator or a voice cloner, scammers can pretend to be a colleague or a celebrity. We will also remember that scammers used images generated by AI to dupe a major financial director. Last year, an employee of a Hong Kong multinational took part in a fake meeting with several of its managers, represented by deepfakes. These videos generated by AI convinced the financial director to transfer a fortune to an account. He thus sent more than $25 million to cybercriminals.
Worse, some hackers do not hesitate to imitate the people closest to you to lure you into their nets. By cloning the voice of your other half or one of your children, the hacker will contact you by telephone. You will then hear a familiar voice asking you to make a payment as soon as possible, generally for a matter of life or death. Overcome by emotion, the victim will comply, without realizing that they have just entrusted their savings to a criminal. Before acting under the influence of emotion, we advise you to do everything possible to confirm your loved one's story by other means. If in doubt, do not hesitate to ask them private questions, to which hackers have no answers.
Love bombing
Cybercriminals also do not hesitate to play with the feelings of their targets. Through dating apps such as Tinder, Meetic, Fruitz or Grindr, they will form a romantic relationship with their victim. To fool the targets, they use a fake profile that is as perfect as it is unreal and launch into a "love bombing" operation. This emotional manipulation technique consists of overwhelming a person with excessive attention, compliments and affection in order to seduce them quickly and create an emotional dependence.
The fake Brad Pitt case, which caused a stir a few weeks ago in France, perfectly illustrates the practices of criminals. A Nigerian scammer pretended to be actor Brad Pitt in order to seduce Anne, a fifty-something married to a millionaire. After months of heated discussions, the scammer convinced his target that they were a couple. He asked her to send him money. In this way, he extorted more than 800,000 euros from his victim.
As part of these romantic scams, cybercriminals will massively use deepfakes. By manipulating images with AI, scammers can make their interlocutor believe anything they want. They can show themselves in heavenly places or hold a sign with the name of their target, in addition to the date of the day. Sometimes, a simple montage made with Photoshop is enough to fool the interlocutors, who are not very familiar with the uses of the web.
After a while, days, weeks or months, the scammers will come to beg their interlocutor for money. Convinced that they have found their soul mate, the latter is likely to accept the scammer's requests.
Guilt tripping: the spring of compassion
Criminals also very often play the compassion card. After contacting their targets, the hackers will pretending to be in financial difficulty. They can invent incredible scenarios in which they find themselves stuck in a hospital bed or lost in a foreign country. This type of manipulation is called "guilt tripping". It consists of manipulating a person by exploiting their guilt in order to obtain something. The goal is to arouse pity so that the targeted person feels obliged to meet the expectations of their interlocutor by all means.
We will remember that the Tinder scammer had opted for this strategy. After doing everything to make his targets fall in love with him, Simon Leviev had told an improbable story featuring enemies of his family. The young man, who presented himself as a billionaire, claimed that influential people were trying to attack him. On several occasions, he has used the pretext of attacks against his person, with photos to back it up. In particular, he shared a photo of one of his supposed bodyguards on a hospital bed. After arousing the concern and compassion of his target, he claimed that he could no longer use his bank accounts to avoid being detected. This is where he asked his victims for money. In this way, he stole millions of euros from dozens of young women.
Some scammers, or "grazers" in the jargon, also do not hesitate to threaten suicide to arouse the compassion of their target. This was the case with the fake Brad Pitt mentioned above. By making their victim feel guilty, scammers often manage to obtain new payments.
Fear
Most often, hackers seek to scare Internet users and create a false sense of urgency. Once terror has taken hold of victims, they have difficulty thinking and making informed decisions. They are therefore more likely to obey cybercriminals without question.
To achieve this, hackers use different tricks. One of the most common is the fake invoice. Typically, hackers will send you a fake invoice by email with a staggering amount to pay. This could be an online order, a fine, or any other unpaid amount. This fake document is intended to put pressure on the recipient. In the email, hackers include a link or a contact address. To find out more about this mysterious unpaid invoice, you will logically go to the link. This is when cybercriminals will ask you for personal information, including bank details.
In the same vein, there is also the parcel delivery scam. By SMS, scammers pretend to be delivery services such as La Poste, Colissimo, DPD, Chronopost or UPS. They claim that a package is waiting, has been shipped or could not be delivered. To complete the delivery, the message demands urgent payment, citing shipping costs, taxes or customs duties in order to deceive the victims' vigilance. Here again, scammers do everything to create a sense of urgency that leaves little room for caution. There are also fake emails saying that your Facebook, Netflix, Disney+ or Instagram account has been hacked, or that your computer has been blocked by the police.
Also read: Here are the most common phishing emails on the web
FOMO: how to exploit greed
In other scams, hackers seek to take advantage of Internet users' greed. To capitalize on their targets' greed, scammers will post fake investment opportunities online, particularly with cryptocurrencies. These scams promise to earn colossal sums and stratospheric returns in just a few clicks. This is the case with fake crypto scams, which are rife on social networks. Hackers claim that all you need to do is buy a digital currency to earn money. In fact, they will mainly take advantage of this to collect your bank details.
Let's also mention the offers that are too good to be true, which multiply during sales or the end-of-year holidays. Hackers often lure their victims with discounted products, such as iPhones for a few dozen euros.
To trap Internet users, criminals rely on the FOMO phenomenon (acronym for Fear Of Missing Out). This is the fear of missing out on something, such as a financial opportunity or a free iPhone. Hackers are well aware of how Internet users' minds work. That's why they will calibrate their communications to provoke this fear, which generally leads to impulsive behavior. The more impulsive the victim is, the more likely they are to fall head first into the trap.
Identity theft
One of the favorite strategies of scammers is to impersonate a trusted entity or person. They often choose a company's technical support, a bank's customer advisor, or any official entity, such as the tax authorities. By email or text message, they will claim to be contacting on behalf of this entity.
To lull Internet users' suspicions, hackers use an email address similar to the official address or an official header. These elements will reassure the target. When the target is convinced that they are communicating with their bank or a reputable company, they will lower their guard and agree to communicate personal information. Very often, these traps result in the theft of bank details.
Manipulation of search results
Cybercriminals are increasingly managing to manipulate the results displayed by search engines, including the essential Google. Hackers will rely on a series of tactics to make their malicious websites appear at the top of search results. When you type a keyword into Google, you will first come across sites designed by cybercriminals. Hackers have already used this trick to broadcast ads for fake VPN sites on Google or, more recently, to deploy a virus called Playfulghost.
This strategy gives Internet users the impression that websites are legitimate and harmless. Once reassured, they will download all the content offered by the site, without suspecting for a single second that it could be a virus. Before installing content found on the web, take the time to consult the URL.
We have reviewed the main strategies used by hackers to trap you online. By keeping in mind these different criminal tricks, we hope that you can protect yourself and avoid becoming one of the victims.
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