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Beware of this latest French phone scam

Connexion reader, Malise Ruthven, shares a recent phone scam they fell victim to

A Connexion reader exposes yet another phone scam you need to look out for in France

Regarding your recent story about bank and similar scams, I would like to add a warning.

I recently had a phone call on my fixed line from a woman claiming to work for Orange.

She explained technicians were updating my network and gave me various numbers to call, instructing me to leave my fixed phone »å鳦°ù´Ç³¦³óé while they made necessary adjustments.

This lasted several hours.

It happened that our handyman came by while I was on one of the calls.

He immediately suspected a scam, and told me to ring off and check with Orange.

I called the helpline and learned, to my chagrin, that the foreign-based ‘technicians’ had relieved my account of €67.

The charges had been incurred by my leaving the set off its holder, while being asked occasionally to call different French numbers.

I assume these were premium numbers, although I did not think this at the time.

I hope you can add this scam to your list in future versions of your excellent articles.

Read more: Beware new telephone scam for bank details doing rounds in France

By Malise Ruthven, via email

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