Several gendarmeries have alerted in recent months to the resurgence of attempted thefts using this old but returning technique: the “Marseille collar”. The thugs also benefit from a little novelty that makes us more vulnerable.
Alert in Besançon, arrest in Toulouse… A well-known scam known as the “collet marseillais” has returned to France in recent months and many banks are warning about the resurgence of attempted theft. If the electronic hacking of your banking data is still on the rise via the recovery of your personal data “phishing”), good old methods are still used by the thugs.
That of the “collet marseillais” (the first case would have been reported in Marseille many years ago and gave its name to the technique), also called “card trapping”, is a well-crafted scam that begins by inserting an object into the cash dispenser slot to trap your bank card in the device. It is usually a small plastic strip, slipped into the gap, but it can also be a small piece of paper. They can be difficult to detect when you approach your card to the hole provided to insert your card. The scene is enough to create panic and this is precisely the effect desired by the thieves.
Imagine: you insert your card, wait anxiously for the ATM display screen to update with the various withdrawal options and…nothing happens! Panicked, you think your card has been swallowed by the device… In reality, this is just the beginning of your troubles.
Panicking, you try to press the device or check to see if a bank employee is nearby. Unfortunately, this scam is particularly widespread during closing hours of the counters and in rather isolated places. There, an accomplice comes into play. He claims to help you, asks you to re-enter your code, sometimes pretending to have experienced the same problem or evoking a malfunction of the device.
He can then memorize your code by discreetly placing himself nearby. That’s it. The thief just has to wait for you to get bored and leave the machine, certain to have seen your card being “swallowed”, then to recover your card, carefully kept in the “fake” opening. The thief has your bank card, your code and only has to fraudulently use your account.
Without quick opposition made on your card, the amounts can easily reach 2000 euros. new payment methods oblige, the thief sometimes does not even need your code to make at least small payments… With the development of contactless, small amounts can be debited successively. The damage is then less serious financially but can leave psychological traces in isolated or vulnerable people.
