The Director General of the Inter-banking Monetary Center (CMI), Ismail Bellali alerted against online scams promising appointments for French Visas amid a general cut back on visas granted to Moroccans by the French Embassy.
Many Moroccans kept reapplying for Schengen visas despite French authorities’ decision to cut back on visas granted to Moroccans and the delays and costs resulting from the consecutive refusals.
This prompted “online mercenaries” to take advantage of the citizens’ desperation, as many of them require visas for important appointments and events.
“I would like to share with you a scam that is gaining momentum. With the appetite of citizens to get appointments for Schengen Visa applications at BLS and TLS centers, mercenaries have set up shop and pretend to sell close appointments,” Ismail Bellali in his LinkedIn post.
The CMI director added that these “mercenaries” offered their services on social networks, using “well-honed” and sophisticated techniques to gain the trust of “potential customers” who would contact them to proceed to payment directly.
The scammers ask their victims to pay the fees by credit card, explained Bellali. The operation begins when victims provide their card information to an “alleged contact,” followed by the payment verification code they receive via text message to pay for a “close appointment.”
Payment transactions go immediately to the scammer’s wallet refill, who then keeps asking for more top-ups.
“The scammer is not satisfied with just one transaction, he tells the victim that the payment failed because he mistyped the code and they repeat the transaction a 2nd and 3rd time…” according to Bellali.
“Never give out your banking information!” states Bellali to end his post.
Paris announced in September 2021 that it would reduce the number of visas granted to Algerian and Moroccan citizens by 50% in response to the Kingdom’s lax policy of returning citizens living in France in irregular situations.
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