French Notaire scam-ola?
Discussion
The default answer would be 'yes', however...
My mum has been contacted a few times over the past year by various persons regarding the winding-up of a family trust, effectively they are seeking to trace beneficiaries. The family link is distant but seems to check out.
It's gone around the houses and is now apparently in the hands of a French notaire who has requested her occupation, marriage status including details of spouse, etc and her IBAN number for payment. No sum disclosed yet.
Ordinarily I'd say it's a scam, but realistically what can they achieve fraudulently with an IBAN number? Obviously they also know DoB, address etc through their own research.
I've searched for the notaire and both his email address and name fully check out on he notriare.fr website...
My mum has been contacted a few times over the past year by various persons regarding the winding-up of a family trust, effectively they are seeking to trace beneficiaries. The family link is distant but seems to check out.
It's gone around the houses and is now apparently in the hands of a French notaire who has requested her occupation, marriage status including details of spouse, etc and her IBAN number for payment. No sum disclosed yet.
Ordinarily I'd say it's a scam, but realistically what can they achieve fraudulently with an IBAN number? Obviously they also know DoB, address etc through their own research.
I've searched for the notaire and both his email address and name fully check out on he notriare.fr website...
SantaBarbara said:
Why do they need the IBAN number, ask them to send a cheque
A Euro cheque on a French bank?It's so much simpler and cheaper for them to do a transfer...
carreauchomper said:
but realistically what can they achieve fraudulently with an IBAN number?
Just like a UK bank account number - not very much at all. They can maliciously pay money in, but that's about it...It's easy to figure the IBAN if you have the sort/account, and - remember - many companies put those on their websites, almost everybody on invoices, and they're on the bottom of every single cheque ever.
https://www.ibancalculator.com/iban_berechnen_bic....
Doofus said:
An IBAN contains your sort code and account number. If you think giving those out is risky, then the same applies for an IBAN
What could possibly go wrong...?https://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/jan/07/pers...
schmunk said:
Doofus said:
An IBAN contains your sort code and account number. If you think giving those out is risky, then the same applies for an IBAN
What could possibly go wrong...?https://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/jan/07/pers...
The only losers in that were the innocent charity.
The only other factor to be aware of is that they know her mother's maiden name etc... although obviously they already knew and quoted this!
She was concerned about them wanting to know her occupation and it not being relevant- Although I can easily imagine this being a box which requires filling on a bureaucracy-heavy French form!
I've advised her to empty her secondary account and give them these details.. easy!
She was concerned about them wanting to know her occupation and it not being relevant- Although I can easily imagine this being a box which requires filling on a bureaucracy-heavy French form!
I've advised her to empty her secondary account and give them these details.. easy!
carreauchompeur said:
contacted a few times over the past year by various persons regarding the winding-up of a family trust, effectively they are seeking to trace beneficiaries. The family link is distant but seems to check out.
Look up réserve légale (French inheritance law changed a bit ~10 years ago) if the connection is some great aunt or other. Hire your own French notaire to validate if you're truly concerned it's a scam.Behemoth said:
Look up réserve légale (French inheritance law changed a bit ~10 years ago) if the connection is some great aunt or other. Hire your own French notaire to validate if you're truly concerned it's a scam.
Sorry, my linguistic abilities do not extend to French and I can't find any English translations... what's reserve legale?
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