Phone spoofing, BNP Paribas, 1st French bank to be sentenced

On 23 October, the Court of Cassation ruled in favour of a BNP Paribas customer who was the victim of telephone spoofing. The onus is on the bank to prove negligence on the part of its customer in the event of bank fraud. Two years ago, the same bank came up with the idea of charging for access to personal advisers. This service, called Affinité, costs 12 euros a month and allows customers to contact their personal adviser. At the same time, can the MAN system, which has been compulsory in France since 1 October, reduce the number of telephone scams?

In 2019, a customer of one bank, BNP, received a phone call from a fake bank adviser. The bogus adviser convinced him that his account was recording possibly fraudulent movements. Claiming to be carrying out an audit, the fake advisor asked the victim to delete five people from his list of recipients of transfers, and then to add them back by entering his confidential code.

Misled, in particular by the fact that the number displayed on his telephone was identical to that of his real bank adviser, the victim followed the instructions given to him. Two days later, the customer realised that he had been the victim of a scam, as his account had been debited with several fraudulent transfers.  He asked his bank to refund the sums debited.

The rules governing repayment in the event of bank fraud
A bank is obliged to reimburse its customers immediately if they are the victims of fraud (art. L133-18 of the Monetary and Financial Code).
This obligation is waived if the bank can prove that its customer was grossly negligent (art. L133-19 of the Monetary and Financial Code).
The Court of Cassation dismissed the bank's appeal and ordered it to repay the sum of 54,500 euros and to pay 3,000 euros to the customer, who was the victim of ‘telephone spoofing’, it stated in its decision. It thus confirms the ruling handed down on 28 March 2023 by the Versailles Court of Appeal, which had found that the injured customer ‘had not been grossly negligent’. ‘In view of the circumstances in which the fraud took place, the customer cannot be accused of having been grossly negligent", the Court of Cassation confirmed in a press release.

In 2019, the BNP Paribas customer noticed ‘that several fraudulent transfers had been made into his account for a total of 54,500 euros’. He then ‘alerted the bank the same day, claiming to have been contacted by telephone by a person posing as an employee of the bank, asking him to use his personal security details to add five people to the list of recipients of transfers’. The number that appeared on the mobile phone of the victim of the scam ‘was displayed as being that of (...) his BNP adviser “ and the customer therefore believed ”that he was in contact with an employee of the bank’. ‘The modus operandi, using spoofing, put the complainant in a position of confidence and reduced his vigilance", the Court of Appeal stated.

In 2023, the damage caused by all means of payment fraud amounted to almost €1.2 billion, of which €379 million was linked to user manipulation, such as fraud involving fake bank advisers, according to the Observatoire de la sécurité des moyens de paiement (Payment Security Observatory). According to Maya Atig, Director General of the French Banking Federation (FBF), banks "quickly reimburse 8 to 9 out of 10 cases ’ of people who report fraud involving their means of payment.

In the case of BNP Paribas, as in the case of the toxic Swiss franc loans Helvet Immo, it was necessary to go all the way to the Court of Cassation for the customer or customers to have their rights upheld. (BNP Paribas Personal Finance was found guilty of ‘misleading commercial practices’.

And more if Affinité(s)
In 2021, BNP Paribas launched a service called Affinité, which gives customers a personal adviser they can contact. The monthly fee is €12. The reachability of advisers and customers is the major issue impacting on the customer experience in remote business relationships. BPO service provider Armatis explains in an article how it has managed to improve the contactability of prospects during its telemarketing campaigns. Find out more here.

MAN, the spoofing fraud eradicator?
The MAN system came into force on 1 October this year. It enables the sender of a call to be authenticated. But will all telecoms operators implement and enforce it, when some of them are doing business with outlawed service providers or individuals? In the following article, Manifone's Alain Bieuzent explains what MAN is, and in particular one of its major legal loopholes: all telecoms operators operating in France must use MAN, not those based abroad.

In France, operators such as Legos or Transatel, and even telecoms brokers, have sometimes been suspected or found responsible for routing non-compliant telephone calls in telemarketing or canvassing campaigns.

‘Only telecoms operators operating on the French market with numbering resources (telephone numbers for which they are allocated) are obliged to comply with the MAN programme’.

The Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) has issued a ruling that partially changes the situation, since it redefines precisely the liability of banks in cases of fraud and fraudulent transfers. Other victims of spoofing, domiciled in competing banks, will probably rely on this judgement to claim compensation.
But spoofing is likely to continue, in some well-known countries. Gilbert Chikli has created a following, and they are good at it.

Le Bottin du service et de l'expérience client, 5th edition. The history and future of cold calling.
In addition to the Cour de cassation ruling, here are two publications that you may find useful or wish to give as gifts if, like us, you are passionate about what helps businesses, large or small, grow by taking good care of their customers. With or without AI.

• At the end of November 2024, Malpaso-RCM will publish and release the 1st edited book on the history, future and virtues of cold calling. Don't leave a caller is trying to reach you. The book has received the support of Manifone, the telecoms operator specialising in the subject.
  
  In December, the same publisher (which also publishes En-Contact) will be publishing the 5th edition of the Bottin du service et de l'expérience client. A sort of Michelin Guide to 900 French service providers, publishers and consultants specialising in everything that improves customer service, reception and hospitality, with or without AI. Klark, for example, what does it do and what is it worth in terms of responding to your customers, since the AFRC did not include this ‘best generative AI tool for optimising your customer service’ in its start-ups of the year? Qualtrics, an accomplice a few years ago to fraud in elections, is used by Fnac-Darty for its satisfaction questionnaires, why? Does Qualimétrie have any serious competitors when it comes to delegating mystery shoppers? At the same time, Le Bottin will be proposing a selection of the 24 personalities and researchers who are driving forward the subject of customer experience and its digitalisation. As far as the new categories are concerned, the RCS specialists have obviously been approached, since this replacement for SMS is going to change the game, in our view. As well as Speech Analytics publishers, such as Callity, the French company that is leading the way in this category in terms of effectiveness, according to its customers. Is Feedae, launched in the autumn by the founders of Callofsuccess, capable of becoming a serious alternative? Le Bottin, ask for the directory :). Out in December, with issue 134 of En-Contact.
  
  En-Contact editorial team and AFP.
  Front page photo: Gilbert Chikli, the inventor of the president fraud. Gert Van Kesteren.