China Overseas Chinese Network, May 23rd, according to the French "European Times" reported that recently, Chinese tourists in Paris by taxi was asked to swipe the card after the credit card was stolen brush 140,000 RMB news by the media report, caused the French National Assembly members, France-China Friendship Group Chairperson Chen Wenxiong’s attention and attention, he immediately instructed the team members and the party @Mr. Jiliang, get in touch, detailed understanding of the stolen brush situation.
On May 21, after learning the full story of the incident, Congressman Chen Wenxiong immediately wrote to the Paris police chief, Didier Lallement, to draw the director’s attention to this case and such cases against tourists, especially Asian tourists, and to improve the security situation. Afterwards, Congressman Chen Wenxiong also wrote to the State Secretary for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, as well as the Paris Tourism Bureau, Shapira, and the Deputy Mayor in charge of tourism in Paris, demanding that tourism safety be taken seriously and the tourism environment in Paris and France be protected.
In the letter, Congressman Chen Wenxiong detailed the experience of Chinese tourists to the police chief, and handed over the photos of the suspected driver and the suspected license plate number to the La Le Mans commissioner. He hoped that the police would solve the case as soon as possible to ensure the safety of tourism in Paris. For many years, due to prejudice against Asians and other reasons, Asians in France have often been the target of criminals, and violent crimes have also occurred from time to time, he wrote in the letter. Recently, illegal activities against Asians are still very rampant, and the cases of Chinese tourists have triggered discussions on social media, once again confirming the universality and seriousness of this situation. Public security issues involve the daily lives of every citizen, including Asians, and the experience of tourists in France has also greatly affected the international image of France. Chen Wenxiong drew the police chief’s attention to the law and order situation, especially illegal crimes against Asians, and said he would continue to pay attention.
Chinese tourists stolen 140,000 yuan
On May 19, Mr. Jiliang, a Chinese tourist, sent a message on his Weibo to remind his friends in France that he took a taxi from Galeries Lafayette general merchandise mall to the airport. After being asked by the driver to swipe his card, the card was stolen. He said: "I just got off the plane and received the credit card consumption information, and the total amount of continuous consumption is about 140,000 (RMB). I was on the plane at the time of consumption, and the card was also at hand, so there is no doubt that it was stolen. If you think about it carefully, it should have been in Paris yesterday. The driver kept saying that he had no cash on him and insisted on swiping the card, so he stole my credit card information. And he deliberately chatted with me on the car and found out about my approximate flight time, so he stole it when the bank called but I couldn’t answer. At that time, the driver asked me to change the card to pay on the grounds that I failed to swipe the card for the first time. And this’China Merchants Bank Card ‘locked the card for me at the first time because the transaction was unsuccessful, so I avoided greater losses. "He said that he also felt that this person was a little strange, so he took a photo of this person. According to his experience, he only used these two cards in taxis. He thought it was the taxi driver at that time.
After the Weibo of @Mr. Kira, many netizens with the same experience complained that they were also stolen and swiped, and everyone recognized from the photos that they were stolen and swiped by the same driver. The experience is similar: taking a taxi near Lafayette, the driver said he had no money to change, asked to swipe the card, and then was asked when he would return to China, when he would take the plane, etc. During the flight, he stole the credit card. It’s just that some were stolen and swiped, and some were not successfully stolen due to bank security measures.
After Mr. Kira’s Weibo was sent to WeChat Moments such as French tour guides, it also caused friends living in France to complain, saying that they had similar experiences.
Theft is crazy, the Chinese Embassy in France has issued a reminder
Credit card theft is nothing new in France. According to the National Observatory of Crime and Criminal Punishment (ONDRP), the crime of bank card theft in France has been on the rise in recent years. From 2010 to 2013, the number of bank card theft crimes in France rose by 67% in the four years. By 2014, the number of victims reached 451,000, with more than 905,000 bank cards stolen at least once, with an average amount of 112 euros. In 2016, the data reached 1.20 million, and in 2018, the rate of bank card theft in France was the highest in Europe. 69 out of 1,000 cards were stolen. The losses are huge. Figures show that in 2014, the total cost of stolen credit card user information in France amounted to more than 500 million euros.
As early as August 23, 2017, the Chinese Embassy in France issued a reminder on its website to prevent the theft of French credit cards. This reminder has been hanging on the website of the Chinese Embassy in France to this day. It is reminded that recently, when a number of Chinese tourists were paying for a taxi in Paris, the driver falsely claimed that his company only accepted bank cards for payment, and used the bank card replicator to copy the passenger’s bank card information during the card swiping process, and then used the consumption or withdrawal method to steal the credit card, causing the victim to suffer economic losses ranging from a few thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.
Reminder that France expressly stipulates that taxi drivers must accept passengers to pay the fare in cash or bank cards, and provide machine-printed invoices. As a precaution, the embassy advises Chinese tourists to use small denominations of cash to pay the fare as much as possible. If you really need to use a card to pay, you should avoid letting the taxi driver operate the card swipe, and remember to ask the driver for a ticket. Once you find that the bank card has been stolen, immediately contact the card issuer to report the loss and go to the local police station to report the case.
In fact, taking a taxi and swiping the card is only a small part of the stolen credit card. And most of them are because of the stolen credit card information, spending on the Internet or Uber. A reader told reporters that he suddenly found in his bank statement that there were many more consumption that he did not know, one is shopping on the Joom.com.GB website, the other is using Uber, each time the cost is not high, but it is used frequently, more than a dozen times, stealing more than 400 euros.
The Chinese Embassy in France said in its repeated security warnings that Chinese tourists visiting France must carefully read the security reminders issued by the website of the Chinese Embassy in France and the Chinese Consular Service Network before their trip, understand the situation in France, pay close attention to the social security situation in France, and be vigilant. Pay attention to personal and property safety, properly keep personal belongings and identity documents, and enhance self-security awareness. The reporter believes that travelers should do their homework before coming. In fact, such theft crimes have been reminded by the embassy and there are many reports in the media. These are all valid for a long time. With a little attention, tragedies may be avoided.
France is the top destination for Chinese tourists, spending 4 billion euros a year
A recent French government announcement said that France received 89.40 million foreign tourists in 2018, an increase of 3% over 2017, setting a new record. Asian tourists were the most prominent in terms of growth, with an increase of 7.4%. Tourism, one of the key sectors supporting the development of the French economy, generated 56.20 billion euros in foreign tourists in 2018, an increase of nearly 5% over the previous year. The French government has set a goal of attracting 100 million foreign tourists by 2020.
Chinese tourists are the largest group of Asian tourists and contribute a lot to French tourism. In 2018, a total of 2.20 million Chinese tourists arrived in France for tourism, a record high, with an average stay of 6 days. Last year, Chinese tourists spent a total of more than 4 billion euros in France. Among them, 3.75% of Chinese tourists came to France for shopping. The French government has set a goal of attracting 5 million Chinese tourists by 2020. However, France’s tourism safety has been fiercely criticized by Chinese tourists: using cash, being robbed; swiping cards, being stolen and swiped, where do you let tourists go?
Recently, French Secretary of State Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne announced the establishment of a working group on sustainable tourism, composed of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Solidarity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, and the French Tourism Development Agency. It will be responsible for providing strategic and specific recommendations for the sustainable development of French tourism to meet environmental, economic and social challenges. He asked France to strengthen the quantitative and qualitative analysis of international tourists, and to study their travel patterns, economic benefits and jobs, so that the government can formulate guiding policies to enhance the diversity of French tourism destinations. The reporter believes that the Ministry of the Interior should also be included. After all, for tourists, safety is a top priority. Without personal safety, other improvements are nothing but water and trees.
Chen Wenxiong, taking the case of Chinese tourists being victimized as an example, wrote to Lemoyne to pay special attention to tourism safety issues. Only by continuously paying attention to and improving French safety issues can we maintain the sustainable development of French tourism and achieve France’s ambitious goals.
Mr. Chan Man-hung has long been concerned about law and order issues in France, especially racial crimes such as robberies against Asians. He also suggested the establishment of a working group on law and order and anti-racial discrimination to assist the government and the police in finding effective solutions to racial crimes against Asians.
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