Founded in 2014, the Signal-Arnaques.com site is a community platform that fights against scams on the net. Internet users can post their (bad) experience there by detailing the approach used by the scammers to achieve their ends.
Since the beginning of May, several reports have mentioned a fake Fnac Darty site which claims to generate income for them by “giving its opinion in order to boost Darty, Amazon sales…”, explains a user. The latter was contacted via the Indeed job search platform for a paid service which turns out to be questionable.
A bad copy of the Fnac Darty website © fvdarty.com
Indeed puis Whatsapp
It is via WhatsApp that the first exchanges with the scammer take place. “What we need to do is help merchants around the world increase their sales of goods, have you ever done such work?” asks the hacker who responds to the pseudonym Torrence.
Quickly, one of the victims suspected a scam and cut off all contact with his interlocutors: “I winced when I had to register my bank card. I deleted everything Binance app and blocked contacts on WhatsApp”. The website to which she was sent, fvdarty.com, was registered a few days earlier, on April 30, 2023, for the purposes of the criminals.
Extract from the Whois database © Domaintools
Another opinion goes in the same direction: “Job offer by a fake manager to earn money on a site that has nothing official, no mentions, no conditions of use… Investment request personal … tempting proposal for a nice scam …… attention !!!!!”.
No amount has been communicated by Internet users who have submitted their opinion on Signal Arnaques. The fvdarty.com site seems to hide a basic interface (discovered via a technical bug and visible below) which allows users to deposit funds there and then (falsely) withdraw them or refer friends. This is relayed by a disillusioned third person who explains somehow: “after my account has completed 40 product order tasks, you can get a 25% referral commission on my account”.
A display bug on the usurped site © fvdarty.com
How do I report a scam?
Every day, dozens of victims complain on this site, highlighting all the creativity of web scammers (lottery, phishing, financial scam, social networks). The official method for reporting these scams, however, is the PHAROS platform accessible via the site www.internet-signalement.gouv.fr.
The government allows victims to report fraud which will then be dealt with by a judicial police service specializing in these issues, the Central Office for the Fight against Crime Related to Information and Communication Technologies (OCLCTIC). Under the authority of the public prosecutor, a criminal investigation may be opened.
Unfortunately, the crooks have a perfect command of the workings of the system and do not hesitate to close the sites identified by the police (or the AMF) to reopen them under another name. Like the three Internet users, you have to know how to be very vigilant when you are solicited for a service.
