This is one of the results of the 2021 report of the financial intelligence service TRACFIN. U personal account fraud formations (CPF) has increased dramatically in 2021.
The number of notes transmitted by TRACFIN to the judicial authority has been multiplied by three compared to 2020. The total amount of financial stakes has also been multiplied by more than five, from 7.8 million euros to 43.2 million .
The increase in the number of files transmitted by TRACFIN is also explained by the significant increase in the number of reports of suspicious transactions related to CPF fraud compared to 2020: 116 against 10, i.e. a multiplication of almost twelve in a year.
Personal training account (CPF)
The CPF allows every active person to acquire training rights that can be mobilized throughout their professional life. Since 1er January 2019, the CPF is credited in euros and no longer in hours. Through the digital applications www.moncompteformation.gouv.fr, each worker therefore has on his CPF an amount of 500 euros per year for training, within the limit of 5000 euros. The CPF is fed every year by employers, skill operators (OPCO), the Pôle emploi oe regions.
In 2021, an increasingly different CPF fraud
If in 2020, fraud was mainly based on identity theft, facilitated by flaws in the system, the latter has seen its security reinforced. Indeed, authentication with the FranceConnect portal has been implemented. This now allows you to circumscribe the risks of identity theft.
However, CPF fraud now manifests itself through more diverse mechanisms:
- registration of several people belonging to the same network to a fictitious training or not really followed,
- door-to-door sales and enrollment incentives through rebate offers to trainees benefiting from the CPF in the form of gifts, prepaid cards or sponsorship commissions.
Advice to follow from TRACFIN for professionals involved in the fight against money laundering
Given this situation, TRACFIN invites whistleblowers (professionals concerned with the fight against money laundering) to keep a particular vigilance on:
- companies that have been created recently or that have recently registered a change of activity for continuing education for adults, or a change of manager/partner,
- managers/partners without specific qualifications for adult training and the absence of declared employees,
- the domicile of the company with a service provider and the absence of premises dedicated to training (or related expenses),
- the short-term turnover explosion, resulting exclusively or mainly from transfers issued by the Caisse des dépôts et consignations under the CPF,
- fast fund transfers keeping the account balance close to zero.
Particular attention should also be paid to debt flows when these:
- are not related to training activities (transfers to third-party companies without consistency of activity, to foreign accounts opened with new banks),
- are issued exclusively or mainly for the benefit of the manager, the partners or their family circle,
- are issued to the benefit of call centers or call-centers (in France or abroad),
- are used to buy consumer goods that are not related to the activity or, if the connection is possible, in proportions that exceed the expected needs in terms of customer knowledge,
- it does not show any payment of remuneration, either in terms of salary or external services.
Individual, how to detect and react to a CPF scam?
In the context of canvassing, fraudsters insistently invite the transmission of personal data. To convince, in general, they claim that the training credits are about to expire and that they must therefore be mobilized as soon as possible. Please note that CPF credits cannot actually expire! Scammers use different methods to try to collect personal data and recover phone usernames and passwords to take control of the victim’s personal training account.
Find out more on the DGCCRF website