They spent €500 on Facebook for a fake license they never received

A Belgian couple lost €500 when they tried to buy a fake driving licence through an advert posted on a Facebook group.

A legal procedure

The promise was as follows: obtain a driving licence without lessons or tests for €500 in the country of "our choice". In the advert, posted on a Facebook group of over 15,000 people, the author of the publication specified that the procedure was completely legal. So this Belgian couple decided to give it a go.

This woman wanted to please her husband, who was unable to pass his driving test again. So she contacted the scammers to find out more about the offer. The author of the ad reassured her by introducing himself as a former employee of the local authority who was offering this service using his old network.

500 for a false licence

At her husband's urging, however, the young woman, somewhat hesitantly, paid the requested sum of €500 by bank transfer in order to start the necessary administrative procedures. This was done in France, but the licence would have been usable in Belgium. Once the payment had been received, exchanges between the swindlers and the young woman dropped off considerably, as they had become completely unreachable.

Photo evidence

After many attempts, our young victim managed to contact her scammers. They sent her a photo of the examination form with her husband's contact details. This photo was the scammers' proof that the process had been initiated.

However, it turns out that this "photo evidence" was just a vulgar Google image that had been completely doctored.

The licence was never received

After this last message from the criminals, our couple never heard from them again, and the licence was never sent to them. They had realised that they had been the victims of a scam.

Creating false documents is totally illegal and punishable by law. This type of document can only be issued by a public authority. The penalty can range from 5 to 10 years for manufacturers and a fine of up to €75,000 for users.

Secure your services between private individuals with Obvy

Fake document scams are very common in transactions between private individuals. Only public authorities are authorised to issue you with official documents such as a driving licence, passport, identity card, etc.

The Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes estimates that 1 million people are scammed every year. Many criminals will go so far as to create fake administrative websites, so stay vigilant.

To avoid any scams between private individuals on ads posted on Facebook, use Obvy. Our teams are available to support you in all your dealings, and are also there to advise you on the reliability of the transaction. With Obvy, you can also secure all your services between private individuals, such as car-sharing, baby-sitting or distance learning! Create your free account in 2 minutes to secure all your transactions between private individuals.