The new telephone and Internet con men | France 2 | Envoyé Spécial

Every year millions of French people are victims of scams via their cell phones or their mailboxes. The swindlers use several methods: phishing by e-mail, the ping-call and over-priced SMS on our cell phones. Each month more than 20,000 attempted scams land on our cell phones. Even if the swindle only costs the victim a few Euros, it can bring big bucks to the con men. A year ago, two brothers managed to ring millions of cell phones in France. Several hundred thousand users called the number back in absence. The amount of the swindle: 900,000 Euros. Nobody is safe from this new form of criminality.  Other scams operate on the Internet, via spam or an unsolicited e-mail that lands in a mailbox. 90% of mails sent around the world are spam. And in this case it’s a bank account that is cleared out via the victim’s bankcard. Who are these criminals who use flaws in the Internet or who open over-priced telephone lines? How is this business organised? How are banks and other official organisations fighting the phenomenon? What are the available protections against phishing? Why is it so difficult to stop these swindlers?