Mortgage rates continue to rise, putting future borrowers more and more against the wall.
To realize their dream of becoming owners, more and more of them are turning to brokers and doing online simulations.
Scammers have sensed the opportunity and are multiplying scams to trap victims in search of credit.
The Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR) recently added 346 new fraudulent sites to its blacklist, in addition to the 1,262 it already had in 2023. At the end of last year, the National Chamber of Expert Advice financial institutions (CNCEF) had alerted the public authorities to this “growing phenomenon”.
The process of fake home loan scammers
Several scams of this type have been reported on the Signal-Arnaques site.
The process is always the same: a fake bank advisor contacts future buyers using the data they themselves have entered on an online comparison site.
Its goal is to steal the personal contributions of its victims.
This mishap happened to a young couple from the North, reports France 2. The mother of one of the victims made simulated loans on a site that closely resembled the Meilleurtaux.com site.
A few days later, a fake Hello Bank advisor called her back with a tempting offer.
But to get the loan, the false advisor asks him to pay the deposit directly into an account opened by him.
Once the operation is carried out, the trap closes and the crook disappears into the wild, with the 26,000 euros of the personal contribution in his pocket.
More than a billion damages
The scam is not new.
Already at the end of 2022, Tifenn and Kevin were trapped by a fake site resembling that of Meilleurtaux.com.
A scammer claiming to work for Boursorama this time asked them to make a transfer to an account before disappearing into thin air.
The president of Meilleurtaux.com, Guillaume Autier, explains on France Télévisons that several fake sites are created every week.
A procedure exists to close them, but it takes more or less time depending on the case.
The total damage to the victims would amount to more than a billion euros, according to him.
In the majority of cases, the money is never found.
Also read Real estate rates: how Agathe and Jordan managed to borrow over 25 years at less than 4%
Check the registers beforehand
How to protect yourself from a fraudulent credit proposal?
The ACPR recommends systematically checking that “the contact person is authorized to offer banking products by consulting the register of financial agents - REGAFI and the ORIAS website, an organization responsible for keeping the register of insurance, banking or in crowdfunding.
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If the company or person is not mentioned in these records, it is likely a scam.
And even if it is mentioned there, the risk still exists.
The professional may have had his identity stolen.
In a note from February 2024, Bercy also reminds us to be wary of a very low interest rate, a very long repayment period, fees to be paid quickly and sent via an international money transfer service for supposedly being able to unblock the credit and a promise to obtain credit without delay with the release of funds in less than 48 hours.