Toulouse: email scam alert accusing child pornography or pedophilia
For several months, crooks have tried to extract money or steal personal information from Internet users to whom they send e-mails. In this email, they claim that the recipients are being prosecuted for acts of child pornography, pedophilia or even sex trafficking. This is a scam.
“I was very surprised by reading this email, I am not a pedophile. I have never consulted such internet sites, but this type of email remains disturbing”, testifies RenĂ©, resident of Toulouse. This man has tens of thousands of other strange mail recipients. Stamped judicial police, national police or national gendarmerie, this e-mail explains to its recipient that it is the subject of a summons to justice or prosecution for facts as serious as child pornography, site consultation to pedophile content, exhibitionism or sex trafficking. “This message asks you to contact the directors of the Police or the National Gendarmerie as soon as possible. The objective of this scam is to get you to pay a sum of money or to have your personal data communicated to you”, alert the Ministry of the Interior.
In reality, the crooks who originate these emails take advantage of people’s dismay, fear or panic when they read the email to try and fall into the trap. This is a strategy well known to phishing and phishing professionals. The idea behind is either to extract money or personal information. “I took the time to read everything, through my training, I detected errors in syntax but also in legal proceedings but I think that not everyone is aware of this”, underlines RenĂ© again.
Report the facts
Indeed, to try to make the mail more “authentic”, the scammers specify an article of the Penal Code plunging their potential victims a little more into doubt. The authorities therefore wish to recall that “the services of the Ministry of the Interior never send an e-mail to proceed to hearings. The offenses mentioned in this pseudo-summons are never the subject of a transaction. Their processing takes place. in the judicial framework under the supervision of a magistrate “.
The Ministry of the Interior also recommends not to respond to these mails, never to pay the sums requested and not to click on the attachments that may accompany the mail. It also encourages people to report these types of facts via the website. www.cybermalveillance.gouv.fr and / or to the email address [email protected].