The principle is simple: contact large fortunes with a patriotic streak, public figures and businessmen, asking them for a favor: the French state cannot publicly pay ransoms for French hostages, and would need these benefactors to finance these operations, for which they would be reimbursed later. To gain the victims' trust, the impostors even made video calls, where one of them wearing a silicone mask pretended to be the French Minister of Defence...
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