behind the scenes of scams with false investments

They are dozens, hundreds, thousands. But you never hear them. Victims of fraud with false investments never be talked about, while crooks who act in real professionals manage to extract them 500 million euros per year, in France alone. Today, some of them want to break the omerta and testify so that others do not have a formidable efficiency by this scam.

In this type of scam where criminals try to convince the victims to place their money by promising them good yields to actually steal them, the operating mode is always the same. Victims – often fifties – wish to invest dozens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of euros to prepare their retirement, often in the green energy sector, a way of giving meaning to their investment. For this they search the Internet in search of the right placement or respond to advertisements and this is where the crooks are entering action.

Valérie, 53, one of these victims allowed Franceinfo to lift the veil on the operating mode of these criminal organizations. Originally from the Paris region, she recorded several conversations with the criminal group which stole all her money. For her, everything started in August 2023 when her son shows him an advertisement he has just seen on the internet. Both look at if the information relayed in the brochure is true and as everything looks square, they fill out a sheet. The crooks do not take long to contact Valérie who lets herself be convinced. In a few weeks, when she thinks of investing in green energies in Spain, she is shirked all her savings: 170,000 euros.

As soon as she knows herself defrauded, she tries to keep the link with her scammers and records her conversations with them to try to identify them and entrust this evidence to justice. In a first registration, this management controller makes believe that her parents also want to invest. A first crook replied from the tac to the tac and tries to persuade her to have her parents sign a new placement as quickly as possible.

So this is the operating mode: it is a question of playing on the bait of the gain, press the victim so as not to give him time to think. In the criminal organization, everyone has a very specific role. According to a specialist in this type of fraud contacted by franceinfo, there are those called them “openers“, Or the people responsible for making the first contact with the potential victim and at the end of the channel”close“, Those who take over and invite the victims to invest even more. In a case revealed in recent weeks by Franceinfo, seven men, openers,”closers “And intermediaries were arrested in France, Spain and Israel. Suspected of belonging to a vast criminal network specializing in scams with false investments, they are suspected of having stolen more than 130 million euros.

In the Valérie case, the second recording she made a few weeks later features one “closer“, A crook responsible for contacting her to make him believe that he will help her find his savings if she pays him money. He tries to show white leg:”Me when I give a guarantee, it’s certified“.

Obviously everything is false, Valérie has not yet found the slightest penny and she is now trying everything for all to find her money. A fight for the moment desperate since for two years she has only had disappointments with justice. She filed a complaint very quickly in the fall of 2023, but her complaint was just as quickly ranked. “”I had the person who took care of the investigation in the police station, for him it was not possible to find the people with the few means he had“Records Valérie, mother of two children.”So I am one of those we put aside. Justice never helped me in my efforts, the state does nothing“, she notes, bitter.”The feeling I had was that I really was not a priority. “

“I guilty when I entered the police station, saying to myself ‘well I won in my life 170 000 euros, you are already lucky to have won them, except that now you have lost them ‘and indeed I lost everything. “

Valérie, victim of a scam with false investments

in franceinfo

Like Valérie, in addition to having been defrauded, the victims face a naive trial. It is even a double penalty, since they are first victims of crooks and then of justice that does not act. At least that is what they all assure. “”I was a scam of nearly 150,000 euros in December 2022 and since I don’t know how the investigation is going“, testifies for example to Franceinfo Julien, an entrepreneur.

Others have lost all hope outright: the police “took the file, they put it in a corner. My complaint was classified without follow-up, what do I want me to do now? There is nothing to do. It’s damn and I have 100,000 euros“, Lantes Patrick, a retiree.”All doors are closed“, Aurore* (assumed first name), 52 years old, who lost 750,000 euros, all of his inheritance.”My life has completely changed overnight and all my projects were wiped out“, She says.

Faced with these serious accusations, of justice that would do nothing, the many prosecutors that Franceinfo asked have just about the same answer. Some people call into question “naivete“Victims:”Sociations with false financial investments are facilitated by the naivety of victims who believe in minific income and transfer significant sums without the slightest guarantee“, Assures for example Dominique Puechmaille, the prosecutor of Clermont-Ferrand.”I do not know how we can rationally pay 15,000 euros per transfer to a stranger“On the internet, supports his colleague prosecutor of Narbonne, Eric Camous.

And all these magistrates recognize it, complaints for scams with false investments are rarely the subject of advanced surveys. “”It is a question of prioritization, when the victims say that there are a lot of non -follow -ups of their complaints, they are not wrong“, Recognizes Olivier Caracotch, the Dijon prosecutor,”But that does not mean that these procedures are not taken into account or taken lightly“, He relativizes.”It is not a scoop that the internal security forces – the police in the first place – crumble under the procedures“, Says Jean-Baptiste Bladier the prosecutor of Meaux.

If a large majority of these complaints are classified without follow -up, it is because of the complexity of the surveys, as Ingrid Görgen explains, the prosecutor of Cambrai: “The frequent location of authors abroad and the use of clever means to hide their real identity, make the investigations complex (…) The prospects for elucidation therefore remain difficult”.

In this area, the Paris prosecutor’s office is no exception. For this very specific type of scam, the biggest parquet in France classifies 85% of these complaints. One of the main issues is in fact the number of investigators – not very many – made available for such cases. “”The number of investigators dedicated to financial affairs decreases year by year, there is a question of training too. People who arrive in police stations in the Paris region are not necessarily trained on these litigation, there is a large turnover and it is true that it is not in favor of the treatment of this type of scams“, Admits Alexandre Le Bideau, deputy prosecutor for the financial section of the Paris prosecutor’s office.

Finally, in many cases, the only hope for the victims is to request accounts from their banks. All the victims with whom Franceinfo was able to exchange ensure that not once their banks have tried to dissuade them, to carry out a check. “”To speak very clearly, it is necessary to make a lawsuit at the banks Who have, despite all a bunch of alert signals, authorized victims to make transfers abroad, sometimes several dozen transfers which far exceed their habits“, pleads Gabriel Dumenil lawyer who accompanies many victims of scams.”Banks do absolutely nothing, not an alert!“, he says.”It is not normal and it must be sanctioned before civil justice“.

Today, there are no statistics to find out if the banks are effectively ordered to reimburse their customers before civil justice. Contacted by Franceinfo, the French banking federation is justified. “”Banks work in concert with their customers so that they can implement adequate security measures (…) To fight against these frauds which have multiplied in recent years, French banks have deployed reinforced security systems to authenticate their customers (…) In addition, the profession launched in 2023 a large awareness campaign on payments“.

Despite everything, recent convictions show the responsibility of the banks. In Nanterre, a well -known online bank was sentenced in December 2022 to pay 35,460 euros to a victim of scam with false investments. Another French bank was sentenced in June 2024 by the Pau Court of Appeal to pay 1,440,000 euros.