2023-05-01 22:20:06
A levy of 300 to 600 euros without ever having validated it? This is what dozens (at least) of French people have discovered in recent days, according to the community site for protection against Internet scams “Signal Arnaques”. This could be a new scam whose victims, passive this time, can request a refund.
“EUROPEAN LEVY OF: ENS -375 euros”. It is this message, with an amount that can go up to 600 euros, that the victims were able to see in their bank accounts. Some would even have seen this message several times in the same day. The transfers would each time be destined for a mysterious company called ENS. The latter would name these payments by the words “maintenance work”.
The victims discover upcoming direct debits, which they cannot interrupt, which are carried out through the SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) system. The latter allows payments to be made under the same conditions throughout the European area, details the Ministry of the Economy. The SEPA zone covers the 28 member countries of the European Union, the member countries of the European Economic Area, as well as Switzerland, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican.
Victims can be reimbursed or block the levy
But how were the hackers able to take samples without any action or validation from the victims? According to the first hypotheses, it could be that the people hiding behind this name, ENS, have recovered the IBANs of the victims. It is still unclear, however, whether it is indeed a scam, false signatures to allow this mandate, a bank verification failure or simply a computer bug.
Victims can request a refund from their bank advisor or contest this transfer online on the website of their bank. The banking rules are rather on the side of the victims who must however monitor the movement of funds on their accounts.
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“Any unauthorized direct debits less than 13 months old must be reimbursed to you by your bank (your bank is responsible for providing proof of authorisation). Any SEPA direct debit, even authorized, may be the subject of a request for cancellation within 8 weeks of its execution. Please note that if the direct debits come from one of the few countries in the SEPA zone that is not part of the European Economic Area (Switzerland, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican), the period can be reduced to 70 days. , warns Signal Arnaques which ensures that several witnesses were able to “recover [leur] money no problem.
This is confirmed by the BPCE group, which includes the Caisse d’Epargne, among others, which ensures “that there is no impact in the end for its customers”. To our colleagues at RTL, BPCE specifies that “either the customers concerned have already been recredited with the funds, or the cancellation procedures have been triggered upstream by the banking establishment before the direct debit is visible on the customer’s account. “.
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