From October 1st, you should be much less solicited by scammers on the phone: French operators will set up a system to detect and block scams.
Phone scams are a real scourge. The most popular technique today is called spoofing, which consists of making a fake incoming number appear in order to deceive the recipient, as scammers and spammers have sophisticated means of modifying the numbers that are displayed. This trick allows them to usurp the identity of official organizations, such as the Bank of France, the CNIL or even a bank advisor, in order to steal personal and sensitive information from you, while you believe you are dealing with a legitimate contact. They can even encourage you to carry out banking transactions!
The technique is simple: you receive a call that appears to come from your bank, with a supposed advisor on the other end of the line informing you of an attempted fraud on your account. To secure it, he asks you to perform certain actions. And in no time at all, thousands of euros are taken from you without you realizing it.
According to the Observatory for the Security of Payment Methods, an organ of the Banque de France, this fraud represented a total loss of 379 million euros in 2023. Suffice to say that this is not a phenomenon to be taken lightly!
But the wind should soon turn. Starting October 1, operators will activate a system to prevent the usurpation of landline numbers, whether they are those of banks, any other company or public administration.
This MAN (Number Authentication Mechanism) program is based on two pillars: Arcep’s numbering plan and the deployment of a common infrastructure based on STIR/SHAKEN technology. Operators will therefore have to systematically block unauthenticated calls, i.e. calls that have not been recognized by Arcep’s national numbering plan. A measure that comes directly from the Naegelen law, adopted in 2020, and which should prevent fraudsters from usurping the landline numbers of French establishments. Let’s hope that everything will be in place by the deadline…
At the same time, you will be able to count on the mechanism “Do not originate” (DNO). It consists of automatically blocking, without even consulting the Arcep file, calls made from a number that is supposed to exclusively receive calls. This is the case, for example, of centers for blocking lost or stolen bank cards.
Finally, since it is impossible to block all fraudulent calls in advance, telecom operators have also developed tools to protect the customer when validating the payment. They provide payment service providers with an interface to recognize phone numbers that have just changed SIM cards, which is often what scammers do to avoid being unmasked. This allows risky purchases to be immediately identified. With all this, you should be safer!