My O/H spent a few moments this morning taking a call from a ‘lovely’ lady called Eva asking him to telephone 0892970342 because someone had a wonderful surprise for him.
Naturally we ignored the possibility of a wonderful surprise, but after a short while we had another call which I took. This lady insisted several times on speaking to my O/H I explained that I was able to take the call on his behalf. I asked why she was unable to tell me of this wonderful surprise and apparently it was secret (chuckle) I told her I was aware of the scam and hung up. Two more calls and the threat of giving the number to the gendarmes the calls stopped…for now.
Because this was a new scam to us I did have a little fun. Checking online usually highlights these scams. It’s a jungle out there!
The caller/s speak good english.
if they keep ringing on the same number you can use BLOCTEL to block their number
Is that a joke?
Even the french are looking to bring in a new system.
I used to have a lot of bother with scammers, etc. until I heard about a gadget called a BT 8500 Call Blocker. It is basically an answerphone that plays a recorded message before it rings. It asks the caller to identify themselves before letting the call through. An automated sales dialler obviously won’t respond so it doesn’t ring. A scammer is announced but doesn’t get through until I confirm I want to talk to them. Friends and family are put on a whitelist so they get through immediately. We haven’t had a single nuisance call since installing the device. The only downside I can think of is that the message the caller gets is in English. But then as I can’t do a telephone conversation in French there’s no point in them being let through the barrier.
We rarely have scam calls which I think is because we have been very, very careful about where we give out our telephone number. Fingers crossed that this will continue as some friends - despite boctel - have about 20 a day!
Sadly, if you are in the Telephone Book (Annuaire) … your number is there for all to find… 
Sadly, many folk have taken themselves OUT of the Annuaire… and are then uncontactable when something important happens and the commune needs to contact them…
No easy answer…
We didn’t have a phone landline in France for years but then needed to have wifi installed so my relative could remote work and spend longer at the house. As a phone line was part of the package we decided we might as well use it. Monday morning the Orange man installed the wifi. Monday afternoon we bought a handset. Tuesday lunch time we got a call from 'Microsoft ’ to tell us that there was a problem with our computer
We’re in the phone book…always have been. Maybe just luck, although I tend to think that scammers & cold callers use marketing lists not phone books.
(our commune is so small that no need to look people up in the book, you just knock on the door)
Ouch! We must just be lucky then.
Wow… you must be tiny… ours is a large commune (landwise) with few inhabitants… very far flung and phones are essential… especially in bad weather etc… tractors are handy in bad weather too… 
The whole commune is 200 people, most on two “streets” and our little hamlet of a handful of houses a couple of minutes up the road. We’re the only incomers, so most people would know which house we live in.
I also think marketing lists are used. Do I remember a scandal in the UK about consumer information being sold on?
We can go weeks without these calls (usually cold calling) and other times we can have several in one day. Microsoft ones have been very quiet for months!
I was only just reading a similar subject online this morning… these con people are the dregs of society//
That reminds me…I have last month become a Conseiller Immobilier.There is a scam whereby about 6 weeks later you get a demand with no cover letter for E160 fee etc payable only by cheque! I intend to ignore it. Be careful if you are asked to pay by cheque–that suits a fraudster!