The four reflexes: Two minutes worth all your savings

We have seen the promises, the disguises, the traps. The most useful part remains: four simple gestures that stop almost everything.

First reflex: check the authorisation. Any firm that handles your savings must be authorised.

These authorisations are in public, free, online registers. In France, for example, ORIAS and REGAFI.

You type the name, look at the number, compare. Two minutes. No fraudster survives this check done properly.

Done properly means also comparing the website address, the phone, the email. Impersonators copy the name, not the rest.

Second reflex: refuse urgency. Any money decision can wait until tomorrow.

Sleeping on it lets the wave of emotion pass. In the morning, you reread the offer with fresh eyes.

And if the offer disappears overnight? Then you have just avoided losing your money.

Third reflex: never call back a number you were given. Not in an email, not in a message, not on the phone.

In the app, this chapter is animated and narrated, card by card. Start free trial.

Your bank is calling? Hang up. Then dial the number on the back of your card yourself.

A real bank will never hold it against you. A fraudster will lose his whole script.

And remember this: no bank asks for your codes, or asks you to approve a transaction in order to cancel it.

Fourth reflex: check the blacklists. Authorities publish the names of fraudulent websites and firms.

In France, the AMF and the ACPR keep them updated regularly. You can search a name in seconds.

But here is the trap within the trap: a firm missing from the blacklist is not safe for all that.

Fraudsters change names faster than the lists are updated. A site created yesterday is not on it yet.

The blacklist says: run. Only the official register says: you can keep looking.

So the order matters. First the register. Then the blacklist. Then a night's sleep.

And if you have already paid? Tell your bank right away, then file a complaint. The first hours count.

Finally, beware of anyone offering to recover your lost money, for a fee. It is often the same team.

Four reflexes: check, wait, call back yourself, look it up. None costs a single euro.

They ask only one thing: being willing to look suspicious. It is the lowest price in all of finance.