Residents of France receive the most unwanted calls in Europe: an average of 18 per person per month. Spain is second, but unwanted calls per month in Spain have fallen over the past year while they have risen in France, stepping up from 12 last year to 18 this year, according to Hiya’s most recent Global Call Threat Report.
Hiya is in a unique position to measure unwanted calls in France — both fraud and nuisance calls. Consumers using Hiya’s spam protection service through their mobile carrier, device manufacturer, or the Hiya mobile app, can report unwanted calls directly from their mobile device. When they do, they can also submit a comment about the nature of the call they received. Using keywords in those comments allows Hiya to measure specific scam calls over time.
Electricity and solar scams top the list
Below are the top phone scams reported in France in 2025.
1. Energy & electricity – In 2025, the most commonly reported unwanted call in France had to do with fraudsters impersonating electricity and energy companies. Although some Hiya users report energy/electricity calls as nuisance sales calls, it’s more likely they were illegal fraud calls, as the Naegelen Law in France specifically prohibits phone solicitations for electricity and energy contracts. As you can see in the graph above, these calls hit their peak during the cold winter months when energy bills are the highest.
2. Solar – The second most common unwanted call is closely related to the first. Solar energy scam calls similarly target people desperate to save money on their energy bills. Just as we saw with electricity scams, solar energy calls hit their peak in late February. The Naegelen Law also applies to solar energy calls, so it’s likely that these are scams rather than legitimate sales calls.
3. Bank imposters – Bank imposter scams are common in every country, and France is no different. Often the caller will claim there’s a problem with the account. To remedy the matter, the phony representative will ask the victim for account numbers or passwords to gain access to the bank account. Bank scams hit a high point in February, then declined, and then turned upward again in the fall.
4. WhatsApp – There are a variety of scams where the fraudster wants to move the conversation to the private messaging app WhatsApp. The most common of these are employment scams (see #7 below) but there are others as well. Another ploy is a message supposedly from a son or daughter who has lost their mobile phone and wants to be contacted via their new number on WhatApp — where the scam continues.
5. Mobile phone service – Calls promoting mobile phone services are reported as a mixture of telemarketing sales calls and outright fraud. The fraud calls are usually impersonation scams where the caller pretends to represent one of the big mobile phone providers in France in order to obtain payment or personal information.
6. Package delivery – In France, package delivery scams don’t follow the normal pattern where they rise during the busy holiday season in November and December and decline after the new year. Instead, package delivery scams in France hit their peak in May. Scammers may call and request money for unpaid postage on a package, or may be trying to obtain personal information such as a street address to commit identity theft.
7. Employment – A surge in employment scams first surfaced in Spain in late 2024 and then spread across Europe. By the middle of 2025, employment scams were #1 in both Spain and the UK. Most commonly, employment scams begin with a robocall impersonating a human resources representative from a well-known job matching website such as Indeed or LinkedIn. The phony HR rep claims to have seen your resume and wants to tell you more about the job after you connect on WhatsApp. The scammer is usually seeking personal information or a bank account number, supposedly for direct deposit of paychecks.
8. CPF – CPF scams involve fraudsters trying to con French citizens out of funds in their Compte de Formation Professionnel accounts. This government-funded program provides an allowance citizens can use to pay for professional training programs. Previously, accounts were credited in hours, but in 2019 they began crediting accounts in euros. By 2022, CPF scams were by far the #1 type of scam in France, but they have since slowed to just a trickle.
How to fight back against phone scams
The best way to avoid phone scams is to prevent them from getting through in the first place.
For mobile phone carriers, there’s Hiya Protect, which protects subscribers by blocking fraud calls and labeling nuisance calls. It is used by carriers, device manufacturers, and network providers who are looking to create a differentiated voice offering and increase customer satisfaction.
For busy professionals and companies with bring-your-own-device policies, there’s the Hiya AI Phone, which features real-time scam protection, AI-voice and deepfake protection, AI-assisted call screening, and call summaries and transcripts.
For individuals using a carrier that does not offer network-based spam protection, there’s the free Hiya Spam Blocker app, which is available for Android and iPhones.
