French police suspect Israeli criminals in phone scam
Man posing as France’s defense minister called African leaders, seeking ransom for agents ‘abducted by jihadists’
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French police suspect Israeli criminals are involved in a scam in which conmen impersonated French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in a series of phone calls with African leaders in a bid to obtain money.
Le Drian has taken legal action, his office said Friday.
According to the pan-African weekly Jeune Afrique, which broke the story, several African presidents were contacted by someone posing as Le Drian who claimed that French secret agents had been abducted by jihadists, but insisting the news be kept secret.
The caller then demanded that they pay a ransom of millions of euros into a number bank account in place of France, whose official policy bars payment of such demands.
In return, they would be reimbursed through French development aid, the caller claimed.
But nobody was fooled, with all of the officials making contact with Le Drian’s office.
There was no information about which African leaders had been targeted.
Known as “false transfer orders,” such scams are well known to the French police, who suspect a link to criminal networks in Israel or Israelis of French origin who have tried to pull off similar scams by trying to fool business executives or large accounting firms in order to extract large sums of money.
The hoax is almost always linked to the secret services in order to ensure the intended victim keeps the demand a secret and rapidly transfers the money to a numbered account.
The Times of Israel Community.