Impots.gouv.fr website access blockage

I recently received an email message from Direction générale des Finances publiques to say:
Connexion depuis une source inhabituelle vers votre espace.

Has anyone else been contacted saying their account has been blocked due to suspect connection and needs to be fixed?

I’m sure I’m not the only and I’m having trouble getting it unblocked.

not had any such email…

what problems are you having? and just wondering if it really is the DGF who contacted you… hopefully you didn’t click on any link (or anything else within the email :crossed_fingers:

Whatever, if it was me, I’d hotfoot to my Mairie (where there is a computer expert :wink: ) and ask their advice and/or ask France Services (in our nearest town) to help me reconnect to my “espace”.

Incidentally, last week I did note that the govt site warned it would be unavailable February 1st (doing essential updates or whatever)… was that perhaps when you were trying to log-on??

Hi

Looks like you need to contact your local Centre des finances publiques and ask them to unblock your account.
Perhaps best to go in person, taking ID and hard copies of previous avis d’impôts etc.

https://www.impots.gouv.fr/particulier/questions/lacces-votre-espace-particulier-ete-bloque-que-faire

Good luck and please let us know how you get on. A timely reminder to me to update my password.

I had an email fairly recently telling me I had to change my password. As I recall it gave a deadline after which my old password would no longer be valid.
I had a simple password previously and the new password required many more characters and a mix of upper/lower case, symbols etc.

However that does not sound like your issue unless the unauthorised connection alert was entirely coincidental.

(Yes it was a genuine email and yes I went to the impots website to do it, I did not click on link.)

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Heaven and saints preserve us from clicking on links.
Not a tax scam but here’s a very recent tale of woe involving an elderly acquaintance of ours who - despite being warned not to by a mutual friend - went ahead, clicked the link and fell hook, line & sinker:

Thanks Sandcastel
My email from Impots appears genuine. Alas It will not let me change my password as it required in order to then unblock. it does gives the option of a phone call or visit to the impots so i guess I’ll have to go down that rout

When I retired I didn’t expect to ‘drown’ in admin as I and so many other ‘retired’ friends do… I yearn for the day I can wake up without a fresh batch of ‘admin’ emails overnight requiring my attention or fear more of the same …

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Indeed… OH has received a couple of emails purporting to be from the french health thingy… there’s a message/document you need to see blah blah… here’s the link… blah blah.

I wondered why they didn’t use his name… just Monsieur… but the format/logo etc looked OK… hmmm.
However, we didn’t click the link they offered, but went on to the govt site independently… and there was nowt to see, nowt to do… very odd.

It is a pain but if somebody really has hacked into your impots account, impots have to take it seriously. You would not want them to shrug it off, leave your account accessible and let somebody else do what they like with your data.
As another retired person I rarely get admin-related emails. A few In January from my pension providers telling me to consult my espace to see the new pension rates, notifications from impots several times a year when they put a new bill online, insurance renewal reminders, that is about it. If you really get emails every day, I am wondering what they all are and if they cannot be headed off at the pass?

Hmmm. I don’t know how these things work - only that clicking on a link can lead to malware being installed or perhaps an offer to resolve some fictitious technical issue in return for your card details - but no doubt it would not have ended well.

Just to complicate things, occasionally of course the SMS/email and the link it contains are genuine. We had this recently with a request to pay duties to release a parcel from customs. Fortunately we were able to verify the request by going on to the company’s website and putting in our tracking number rather than clicking on the link provided in the SMS.

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Generally emails asking you to “reset your password” or “confirm your details” are phishing scams - they are after your personal information in order to commit identity fraud, e.g. taking out loans in your name.

Usually they try to impart a false sense of urgency in order to get you to act without thinking.

And yes sometimes they are genuine, it can be hard to tell the difference.

Best approach is to take a deep breath, don’t click any links or scan any QR codes, and as you correctly did with your tracking email, verify the issue by a direct visit to the relevant website.

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Thanks Chris. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. They want us to panic.

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We were nearly mislead by the same scam. Just before clicking
I noticed thar the URL was ameli.eu and not ameli.fr

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My first step is to check the “from” email. This can be spoofed to look legit, but often the scammers don’t bother and it’s just sent from some random email account.

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As I posted elsewhere my account was actually blocked but I managed to get the local office to unblock it after I sent a request and a copy of my passport. Several days later I received the same e-mail message that you have received but I have ignored it for now since my fisc account seems to be working fine.

This particular scam must be doing the rounds because I just received a warning from my bank and the following explanation of how it works:

Crikey the lengths they will go to.
I think if a person turned up at my door to take my bank card off me I would be so incredulous that whatever they said I would not believe it, because since when do banks make home visits.

One of my neighbours is falling for a particular scam, which I won’t describe. This scam will almost certainly ruin not just his life but the life of his wife and children. He has been warned by all around him, ourselves, his wife, his mother and friends etc that he is falling for a scam but he will not listen to anyone. He is going forwards. It is very dispiriting and scary that someone I know quite well can be so blind that he can ignore all evidence and advice to jump headlong into possible oblivion. He’s behaving very similar to the typical maga supporter.

Jesus. Please DO describe it! Forewarned is forearmed and all that.
I’m pretty sure an acquaintance of ours is being drawn into a pyramid scheme but for now, all he’s seeing are € signs.

Ah… And then you moved to France, didn’t you :slight_smile: .

My sympathies. Coincidentally I read this article yesterday which you might find of interest?

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