1/4 Auchan voucher announcement: the risks and costs behind this offer. Our opinion !

Several Internet users have written to us to warn us of a scam that is currently running on the internet: the Auchan voucher scam.

I clicked on a Facebook ad

I was offered this gift because I completed a survey

it was on an Instagram ad!

I received an email asking me to answer a questionnaire to maybe win a prize

...

The testimonials are varied and yet the scam mechanics always remain the same: an offer for Auchan vouchers disguised as a gift, lot (end of stock, damaged products ...), price or even reward against a completed form. The condition: pay the shipping costs. Only, by paying the shipping costs, you enter your credit card numbers ...

If you are asked to enter your bank details as part of a win, it is a scam! The goal of scammers is to collect your card numbers to subscribe to any online service and extract a few tens of dollars from you each month thereafter.

WARNINGS : do not trust the big known brands attached to all these scams. They have nothing to do with it. These are the scammers who use their image to gain your trust!

2/4 How to stop monthly card purchases following the Auchan voucher offer?

Stopping direct debits following the Auchan voucher scam is free. To do this, you must complete the termination procedures. You can do this directly online through the service that charges you each month.

Can't you do it alone? There is online assistance (paid service) to help you terminate. Our recommendation: I stop the costs!

This company helps you to identify the company which withdraws you and to definitively stop the withdrawals. They can even help you get a refund WHEN possible (more on this later on this page).

3/4 Getting a refund following this scam: is it possible?

How to get reimbursed following an Auchan voucher scam? This is the question we are asked the most, and unfortunately it is not that easy.

Indeed, when the bank card was entered to pay the shipping costs (the famous 1,95 euros or 2 euros for postage), you validated the general conditions which indicated that:

1. The gift offered was as part of a competition (in other words, it is very VERY unlikely that you will ever receive it)
2. Participation in the competition resulted in a subscription to an online service

Therefore, the company has no legal obligation to reimburse you. Two alternatives are then available:

- See directly with your banker if the opening of a fraud file is possible (the file will have to be motivated and it will be necessary to succeed in proving that it was a scam)
- Negotiate directly with the company that takes you

4/4 Banking / legal advice: do you have to declare your card stolen to stop withdrawals?

What the law says ? : in March 2018, the court of cassation accepted the culpable negligence of a customer who had transmitted his bank details to a fraudulent site. The bank had opposed his requests for reimbursement, accusing him of negligence in the custody and conservation of his personal data of the security system of payment instruments.

 

This court decision explains why a banker may refuse to block your card if you are at the origin of the purchase or to open a fraud file to get a refund.

If you are still in possession of your bank card, it is very unlikely that it is a hack: blocking the card would therefore amount to not honoring a contract for which you signed up. We therefore do not recommend blocking your credit card but carrying out the online procedures to cancel the current subscription linked to the Auchan voucher offer.

Fraud point: of course, if your card has actually been stolen from you and you are not the originator of the purchase, it is a card hack. In this case, do not hesitate to go and file a complaint.