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Local France
22-05-2025
- Business
- Local France
French lawmakers move to stop annoying telemarketer calls
Under the legislation, passed in a senate vote, it will be up to a company to prove that a call made on their behalf to an individual's telephone was done so with the person's express consent. The only exception would be when the company is calling to carry out an already-agreed contract. According to an October 2024 survey by French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir, 97 percent of people in France have expressed irritation at the cold calls. READ MORE: France leads Europe with highest volume of spam phone calls Often the telemarketers use different phone numbers from different geographic areas as a tactic to place the calls about heat pumps, changing utility or cell phone providers, installing windows, or other transactions. The lawmakers, backed by the government, decided to erect a law against the cold-callers after seeing that a French service, Bloctel, meant to prevent such spam calls, was not working. READ MORE: REVEALED: The most common French telemarketing phone numbers One Frenchwoman, Lucie Kapfer, 43, said she got rid of her landline after receiving "several calls each week" from unwanted telemarketers. "But they continued on my mobile phone. Several calls a day -- it was sheer hell," she said. Advertisement The French government was also concerned by how many of the calls were about arranging fraudulent access to publicly funded schemes, such as training programmes or subsidies for making homes more energy efficient. The law will protect "the more vulnerable people, the elderly, those who sometimes don't realise that this harassment by telephone is only an entry point to massive fraud schemes", said the minister for public accounts, Amelie de Montchalin. The law is scheduled to come into effect in August 2026. Companies "will have a year to organise themselves" to comply with the law, but after that "there will be no exceptions," said the senator Pierre-Jean Verzelen, who promoted the measure. Spain, too, is looking at taking action against telemarketers. Its government last week said it wants telecom operators to block calls from firms not using a dedicated prefix identifying them as commercial callers.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
French lawmakers move to stop annoying telemarketer calls
Representative AI image The French parliament moved Wednesday to stop telemarketers making annoying, unsolicited phone calls, with measures due to come into force in just over a year. Under the legislation, passed in a senate vote, it will be up to a company to prove that a call made on their behalf to an individual's telephone was done so with the person's express consent. The only exception would be when the company is calling to carry out an already-agreed contract. According to an October 2024 survey by French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir, 97 percent of people in France have expressed irritation at the cold calls. Often the telemarketers use different phone numbers from different geographic areas as a tactic to place the calls about heat pumps, changing utility or cell phone providers, installing windows, or other transactions. The lawmakers, backed by the government, decided to erect a law against the cold-callers after seeing that a French service, Bloctel, meant to prevent such spam calls, was not working. One Frenchwoman, Lucie Kapfer, 43, said she got rid of her landline after receiving "several calls each week" from unwanted telemarketers. "But they continued on my mobile phone. Several calls a day, it was sheer hell," she said. The French government was also concerned by how many of the calls were about arranging fraudulent access to publicly funded schemes, such as training programmes or subsidies for making homes more energy efficient. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like China Power: Washington's loss, Beijing's gain as Chinese students shun the US for SE Asia? CNA Read More Undo The law will protect "the more vulnerable people, the elderly, those who sometimes don't realise that this harassment by telephone is only an entry point to massive fraud schemes", said the minister for public accounts, Amelie de Montchalin. The law is scheduled to come into effect in August 2026. Companies "will have a year to organise themselves" to comply with the law, but after that "there will be no exceptions," said the senator Pierre-Jean Verzelen, who promoted the measure. Spain, too, is looking at taking action against telemarketers. Its government last week said it wants telecom operators to block calls from firms not using a dedicated prefix identifying them as commercial callers.
Local France
12-03-2025
- Business
- Local France
France leads Europe with highest volume of spam phone calls
France and Spain tied for a title no country wants to win: 'most unwanted spam calls in Europe'. According to a 2024 study by HIYA, a Seattle based security company, France and Spain topped the charts with an average of 15 unwanted cold-calls per month. For France, this represented five more spam calls per month in comparison to 2023. After France and Spain, Italy averaged at 14, followed by Poland and Portugal with six unwanted calls per month. France also leads the charts in other statistics related to spam calls, with 59 percent of calls from an unknown number in France proving to be spam or unwanted cold-calls. According to French consumer rights group, UFC Que Choisir, as of October 2024, 97 percent of French people were fed up with the prevalence of cold calls, with another 72 percent of people saying they are called at least once a week and 37 percent saying they receive spam calls daily. Is France addressing this problem? Last Thursday, legislation aimed at tackling cold calling passed the Assemblée Nationale. The bill would require consumers to give their prior and explicit consent before any commercial or advertising canvassing by telephone. Telemarketers who do not follow the rules would risk fines. It will still need to be reviewed by the Senate one more time, but the goal is for the regulations to come into force from January 2026. The country has made previous attempts to deal with cold calling via the website Bloctel, which allowed people to register their contact information so that telemarketing companies know not to contact them. However, this has not solved the problem, and The Times reported that France may have been hesitant to issue a blanket ban on cold calling, like Germany because "telephone sales work in France". Telemarketing firms "employ 50,000 people in French call centres and turn over €3.3 billion a year after strong growth of nearly seven percent annually between 2017 and 2021," the British daily wrote. What can I do in the meantime? France has instituted rules about when telephone canvassing is allowed. Legally, it is only permitted from Monday to Friday, from 10am to 1pm, and from 2pm to 8pm. The above hours cover marketing calls - people asking if you want to upgrade your phone contract, switch electricity suppliers or buy new windows. They might be annoying, but there is nothing criminal about them. However, if you get a call outside of those legally defined hours, it's more likely to be a scam, French radio network RMC reported. If you are bothered by spam calls, you can try to reply to the number - as long as it is a five-digit one beginning with 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8, with a simple message: STOP. Reputable businesses will respect your instruction to be removed from their database of numbers.
Local France
07-02-2025
- Business
- Local France
French MPs consider another bill to clamp down on cold calls
We've been here before. Politicians of all stripes have promised to tighten up the laws on cold calling. There was a requirement for call centres to use phone numbers with an 09 prefix, to help consumers avoid 'fraud and abuse' by allowing them to tell the difference between personal mobile numbers, typically those beginning with 06 and 07, from calls or messages coming from companies. And, in March 2023, cold-calling, or telephone canvassing, was officially banned in the evenings, on weekends or public holidays, and at lunchtime. The same law limited was intended to make it impossible to sell products related to energy renovation or personal training accounts (CPF), or to call a number more than four times in 30 days. Whether hassled householders noticed any of these changes is a different question entirely. Now, however, there is the glimmer of a new hope in the cold call wars. Back in November, a proposed law was passed unanimously in the Senate that would require people to opt-in for cold calls by making an active approach to companies, and authorising contact. No cold calls without prior authorisation. The aim of the bill, according to Pierre-Jean Verzelen, the senator behind it – 'to ban cold calling'. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? But, if it passes the Assembly – MPs are reportedly in favour of the proposition ahead of the debate on March 6th – the legislation could come into force as early as this summer. More than 11 million personal phone numbers are registered with Bloctel, a service that enables individuals to refuse to be contacted by any company with which they have no contractual relationship. Even so, commercial canvassing – the posh term for cold calling – is still the leading source of reports to the French fraud control agency (DGCCRF), via Bloctel or Signal Conso. The latter records some 300,000 reports per year. So why have previous efforts failed? Industry professionals point out that some 50,000 people in France work in call centres. And, according to the Fédération de la vente directe, this law would put up to 150,000 jobs at risk, while having little effect on illegal or fraudulent cold calls. There are no figures for how many unwanted calls turn out to be scams. But there are plenty of them. And telephone regulator Arcep doesn't expect the new law to have the impact politicians expect. 'This law won't combat fraudulent calls and messages, which already don't respect the current framework, and which have been on the rise in recent years,'it said in a statement. But Verzelen argued that's no reason not to try to cut cold calling. He believes the law would cut a large number of unwanted calls 'After that … the government needs to give itself the means to step up controls, especially as we plan to increase penalties, which should act as a deterrent,' he told Le Parisien. The mécanisme d'authentification des numéros (MAN) - deployed a few months ago on landlines and since early January on mobiles - should help in the hunt for fraudsters. It enables operators to block a call if it impersonates another number, as is the case with fake bank advisor scams.
Local France
27-01-2025
- Business
- Local France
Revealed: The most common French telemarketing phone numbers
France's Assemblée Nationale is currently considering legislation that would drastically reduce telemarketing phone calls. But as the legislation is likely to take some time, here are some steps you can take in the meantime to avoid nuisance calls and telemarketers. Check the number The first and easiest option is to look at the first four numbers of the phone call. Since 2023, France's regulatory authority for electronic communications, Arcep, has required that commercial cold callers use certain phone numbers. If you see a call coming from a number starting with the following four digits, then you can know it is a canvasser or a marketing call; 0162 or 0163 0270 or 0271 0377 or 0378 0424 or 0425 0568 or 0569 0948 or 0949 Sometimes the call might come up as +33. If this is the case, then the "0" at the start will be dropped and it will begin with the number (eg +33 1 62). Check the time There are also rules about when telephone canvassing is allowed. Legally, it is only permitted from Monday to Friday, from 10am to 1pm, and from 2pm to 8pm. The above hours cover marketing calls - people asking if you want to upgrade your phone contract, switch electricity suppliers or buy new windows. They might be annoying, but there is nothing criminal about them. However, if you get a call outside of those legally defined hours, it's more likely to be a scam, RMC reported. Text messages As well as calls, some companies will also send text messages, and simply deleting the message will not stop whoever is at the other end from trying again later. For something more definitive, you can reply to the number - as long as it is a five-digit one beginning with 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 (for example, 36001) with a simple message: STOP. Reputable businesses will respect your instruction to be removed from their database of numbers. Similarly, if you send the word CONTACT to the sender, they should text you their customer service phone number. Both the STOP and CONTACT message will cost you the price of a standard text. Understand the difference between 'spams' and 'scams' Spam refers to unsolicited calls or messages sent to a telephone line or to email address. It may be commercial, like an unsolicited cold call offering to sign up for better internet plan. Meanwhile, a scam would involve an attempt to extract money directly or to steal your personal data. For cold callers and spam messages, you can request they stop contacting you. For phone calls, try signing up for the government programme, Bloctel, which removes your phone number from commercially-available telephone lists for a period of three years. In theory, this means that you should be protected against telephone solicitation with the aim of selling you products or services, but it is not always as effective as it should be. In contrast, scammers would not respect your requests not to be contacted. You can tell a scam message based on whether it asks you to open attachments, send money or enter personal data. Common scams include messages telling you that you owe postage fees before a parcel can be delivered, that you are on your last chance to pay a fine or that your carte vitale needs updating. The difference between scams and genuine messages on these topics is that the scammers will ask you to open a link and type in personal details or bank details. If you are in any doubt at all, ignore the message and login directly to the relevant account (eg Ameli if the message concerns a carte vitale).
