There is the threat of online dissemination of an intimate photo, the scam when renting a property that will remain virtual or an Instagram account taken hostage in exchange for a ransom.
Internet scams are on the rise as cybercriminals step up their activities.
As a first step towards the dematerialization of complaints, the Thesee platform (“Harmonized Processing of Investigations and Reports for E-scams”) was launched last Tuesday in order to centralize procedures related to cybercrime.
No need to go to the opening hours of the police station or to register a pre-complaint and wait for a physical appointment.
All complaints from individuals who are victims of financial harm take place online on this platform, still in Beta version, the creation of which was announced… in 2017. Several hundred complaints have already been registered in a few days.
Strong expectations from the public… and the police
Hosted on the Service-Public.fr site, Thesee operates a first sorting during a questionnaire which will redirect the victim to the competent complaint filing service.
"This platform corresponds to a strong expectation of the public but also of the police services because the filing of complaints for e-scams are time-consuming and lead to technical investigations which require specialists", underlines Captain Laurent Collomb, in charge of the system. .
After these first filters, the victim is redirected to another page where he must authenticate via his France Connect account.
Another Internet page recalls that "false reporting of facts constituting an offense which have exposed the judicial authorities to useless research is punishable by 6 months' imprisonment and a fine of 7,500 euros".
Like any administrative procedure, filing a complaint involves filling in boxes with personal information, a description of the facts and going through 5 steps.
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The grievances are then verified by a team of 15 police officers from the Cybercrime Sub-Directorate (SDLC) supported by two specialized gendarmes.
The victim then receives the deposit receipt essential for the compensation process with his bank or insurance company.
The spectrum covered by Thesee is wide and captures the main online scams of the moment: hacking of an e-mail address or social network account with a request for money, online classified ad scam or fake sales site but also online blackmail and financial romance scam.
The targeted ransomware
In the line of fire also, ransomware campaigns, this malicious software which paralyzes a device by demanding the payment of a ransom, or even the very active cyberscam with the false judicial summons for the alleged facts of pedophilia.
This filing of a complaint at any time will also generate useful data to streamline the processing of cases.
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“This will also make it possible to make connections between thousands of victims and a single perpetrator who would have the same modus operandi.
The work of investigators will be better streamlined,” confirms Captain Collomb, who has been tracking offenses on the Internet for nearly two decades.
Eventually, the Thesee platform should be included, in the form of a referral link, in the new "My Security" application (iOS and Android) of the Ministry of the Interior launched last week.
