A number of cases of fake police stealing guns in the eastern French city of Besançon have been reported by French newspaper 20 minutes. Media speculation, such cases may be associated with last year’s French Shooting Federation website was hacked, a large number of member information leakage.
The modus operandi of the perpetrators was reported to be sophisticated: they came to the house posing as“Police” or“Gendarmes”, claiming to be conducting a related inspection or investigating a weapons theft in the area, and once inside the house, once inside the house, they seize the victim’s gun. French media, based on the clues that criminals can accurately find the possession of legal firearms is likely to be related to the October 23 last year, cyber attacks occurred. At that time, hackers broke into the French Shooting Federation website and access to 289,000 members of the personal information, including their names, addresses, the license number of the guns held. Law media analysis, criminals grasp the information, targeted planning fraud, posing as the police, with a roster of door-to-door fraud. French police denied the allegations, saying there was no conclusive evidence linking the hack to the theft.
According to the police, who told French news channels that it is usually just about money, “This is the first time they have targeted guns and that is what worries us most”. In the first case, police said, fake police and gendarmes seized a gun belonging to a former member of the French shooting federation in November on the pretext of checking it for an administrative permit. Not long after, two people posing as“Internal security police officers” knocked on the door of another member’s home. Fortunately, the member was more alert, and immediately closed the door and called the police when he saw that the two people didn’t look right, the fake police then ran away.
To avoid more victims, the French police remind the public, if the encounter“Police”“Gendarmerie” door-to-door investigation, must first look at their documents. En cas d’incertitude, il faut vérifier son identité. It is also important to remember that“Law enforcement will never come to your door looking for a weapon.”.