"I Trusted the Human Being": Fake Bank Transfer Scammer Sentenced in Le Mans, France

A man has been sentenced to two years in prison for defrauding around twenty sellers in France's Sarthe region using fake bank transfer confirmations.

About twenty people. That's roughly how many sellers this man in his thirties is believed to have tricked over the course of a year, always the same way: arrange an in-person meetup to buy an electronic device listed on Leboncoin, show a fake transfer confirmation on his phone, insist the money had already gone through — then walk away with the item without a single euro ever actually changing hands.

The 32-year-old man was eventually identified after a string of complaints filed in 2024. Prosecutors had asked for a three-year sentence; the court settled on two, with immediate incarceration, and ordered him to repay his victims.

One of them summed up, in the local press, exactly what makes this kind of scam so effective: the trust placed in the other person at the moment of exchange, based on nothing more than a phone screen presented as proof.