Nineteen recent cases in France, taken from the regional press and official alerts. Each with the date, the place, the amount and the source. And, for those who escaped, the one step that changed everything: hang up, call back on the number you know, ask a question only the real relative can answer.
Updated on
All these cases took place in France; the amounts are in euros and the sources are in French.
€2,000 in a few hours
Bernard, a pensioner, sees the number of the gendarmerie (the rural police) come up on his phone. On the line, “bankers” talking about his account. Despite his precautions, €2,000 goes out that same day. “I'm so angry with myself.”
On 13 August, five residents of the same village, most of them pensioners, get a call from “bank advisers”. On screen, the number of the gendarmerie (the rural police), then that of their bank. The scammers know their details. “They knew everything about me.”
€1,000 transferred; a second transfer of €1,400 failed
Hugo, 26, pays €1.79 in “fees” on a fake parcel text message. A few days later, an “adviser” from his bank calls: a transaction in Germany that has to be cancelled. He knows about the small payment. Hugo transfers €1,000. His real adviser calls him two days later.
Louise, a business owner, gets the same script: a text message, a website in her bank's colours, a confident man who guides her through the app and mentions the data leak at her mobile operator. When he asks for her card's security code, she hangs up and calls her adviser on the number she knows. The scammers' line goes dead at once.
The step that saved her: hang up, then call back on the number you know, not the one that called you.
€2,000 withdrawn from each of the three victims
Three people over 70. The call shows the number of the police station or of a gendarmerie (rural police) station; they are told about suspicious payments, asked to make transfers, to give the card's PIN, then to cancel the card. A “courier” comes to collect it and withdraws €2,000.
Between December 2025 and May 2026, eleven people are told that an “adviser” has spotted a compromised account. Then someone turns up at their home to “collect documents and the card”. Le Havre court, 8 July 2026: three years in prison, one of them suspended, and three years, eighteen months of them suspended.
€79,683 recovered out of €85,651 transferred
A fake “fraud department” at his bank announces a pending debit of more than €80,000. To “secure” the funds, he transfers €85,651 in three payments to accounts in Ireland and Malta. He quickly realises and goes to the gendarmerie (the rural police) that same day. The funds are frozen before they can vanish.
The step that saved him: go to the gendarmerie straight away. After a few hours, the money can no longer be recovered.
On 2 March, an “adviser” persuades a woman in her sixties to hand over her assets to keep them safe. That evening, accomplices turn up at her home: robbery with violence. Amiens court, 16 June 2026: thirty months in prison, fifteen of them suspended, for an 18-year-old.
€3,000 of computer equipment bought with her card
A 76-year-old woman gets the call, then the visit. The ring, run from abroad, sent accomplices to collect cards from people's homes; at least nine offences, more than €20,000. Tried in Marseille in a fast-track hearing: ten months suspended.
€740,000 across around a hundred victims
A ring of fake advisers tried in Paris: 148 offences, about €2,600 per transaction on average. The text message announces a suspicious purchase; the number to call back leads to an “anti-fraud agent” who has the card cut up and writes everything down. A retired couple lost more than €600,000 to it.
Anne, a graphic facilitator, is contacted on WhatsApp by an “adviser” who has her share her screen so he can get at her secret code. Just as she is about to enter it, something feels wrong. She stops right there.
The step that saved her: stop at the first doubt, before the code. A real adviser never asks for it.
€3,000 from each of the two women in their eighties
The number of the local gendarmerie station (the rural police) comes up on screen. The woman on the phone talks about fraudulent transactions and gives their date of birth to reassure them. She has them cut their card lengthways and hand it to a man who calls at their home. Other residents received the same call.
€400 demanded, around twenty attempts
On 29 and 30 January, residents see “gendarmerie de Corbie” (the local rural police) come up on their phones. They are told about a traffic offence in Madrid, and €400 to cancel it by calling back a number. The police note that the callers are “very good”, creating urgency and stress.
€4,000 requested, transfer blocked by the bank
A text from an unknown number: her “son” has drowned his phone, it's drying in rice, here is his new WhatsApp number. Then she has to send about €4,000 to a woman she doesn't know, in Malta, for some purchases. The bank blocks the transfer.
What would have been enough, sooner: call the son on his usual number. If he answers, the first message was fake.
€990 gone from his savings account
At 1 pm, a female “adviser” announces that his card has been hacked in Spain. He must cut the card below the chip and hand it to a courier in exchange for four digits. That evening, a text reports a €1,400 purchase in Paris, presented as “a verification”. Max Michel refuses, but €990 has already gone. The courier was identified and summoned before the Nancy court.
€25,000: €21,000 in jewellery and €4,000 in cash
Catherine Prieur sees her bank's number come up. The “agent” talks about purchases in Africa, has her cut up her card and wait for a courier. On the second call, he gets her PIN. Trial in Paris on 13 October 2025: forty victims, nine defendants. She is also suing her bank, which has not refunded her.
One Sunday evening, around 9 pm, a man in his fifties hears his mother's voice: she has lost her bag at the station and needs his bank details for a train ticket. He asks: “Which station?” No clear answer. The tone shifts, the replies are slow to come. The scammer hangs up.
The step that saved him: a precise question that only his mother could answer. That is exactly what modAmi's two words do, without you having to think about it.
ICI, “C'est pas vrai”, based on La Charente libre · MyJournal, 27 September 2024
On 5 December 2023, the government warns of a massive wave of text messages in which the scammer poses as the recipient's child, claims a broken phone or a lost SIM card, and moves the conversation to WhatsApp from an unknown number. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr (the French government's cybercrime help site) has been tracking these waves since late 2022: the money is requested by bank transfer, by card or in PCS and Transcash vouchers.
The official advice: don't reply, call your child on their usual number, report it to 33 700 (France's spam-text reporting service).
€40,000, refund refused
Pierre, 67, a former insurance agent, gets an email and then a call: his bank's card-blocking number comes up on screen. For seven hours, they call him every quarter of an hour to “validate” transactions. Then they ask for his cards, which a fake courier uses at a cash machine. The bank refuses to refund him: he “gave away his cards and his PINs”.
€379 million of fraud “by manipulation of the user” in 2023, including the fake bank adviser scam; a 78% rise in fake-adviser scams in 2023.
Reply from the Ministry of the Economy to written question no. 167, Assemblée nationale (the French parliament), citing the 2023 report of the Observatoire de la sécurité des moyens de paiement (France's payment-security watchdog)
500 appels reçus par France Victimes en 2024 pour des faux conseillers bancaires, en hausse de 60 % ; près de 50 parcours d'assistance par jour sur Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr. La Cour de cassation a jugé le 23 octobre 2024 qu'être trompé par un faux conseiller qui usurpe le numéro de sa banque n'est pas une négligence grave : la banque peut devoir rembourser.
Question écrite n° 3842 et réponse du ministère de l'Économie, Assemblée nationale
Le scénario officiel en cinq étapes : appel ou incitation à rappeler, présentation avec des informations personnelles volées, prétexte d'opérations à bloquer, demande de codes ou de validations, vol par paiements, virements ou remise de la carte. Depuis 2024, variantes avec faux coursier, partage d'écran WhatsApp et coupons prépayés.
Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, fiche réflexe, mise à jour du 7 mai 2026 · L'hameçonnage au faux numéro d'opposition, 3 décembre 2025
19 000 usurpations de numéro signalées à l'Arcep en 2025, contre 531 en 2023 ; +8 % d'escroqueries en France en 2025 selon le ministère de l'Intérieur, avec le proche en difficulté comme prétexte le plus efficace.
Arcep, 29 janvier 2026 · Ministère de l'Intérieur, SSMSI, janvier 2026 · Banque de France, OSMP, 27 janvier 2026
If you have been scammed: Info Escroqueries (the official fraud helpline), 0 805 805 817, free, Monday to Friday; France Victimes (victim support), 116 006; to block a card, 0 892 705 705. You can file a complaint online via THESEE.
How a scam call unfoldsWhat to do when the words don't matchThe fake bank adviser, on one page
