money
France fraud losses hit €1.24bn as ‘fake bank adviser’ scams soar
Increase in manipulation of individuals as modern technology fares well against scammers
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Fraudsters in France are evolving tactics in light of better technological protection, and are now focusing on social manipulation to extract money from victims.
This is a key takeaway on new fraud figures published by the Banque de France and Observatoire de la sécurité des moyens de paiement, tracking fraud and spending in 2025.
€1.241 billion of fraud was detected in 2025 – a 3.8% increase on 2024 – with €516 million of this coming from ‘social manipulation’.
‘Social manipulation’ fraud is where fraudsters purport to be trusted individuals – such as the ‘fake bank adviser’ scam – in an attempt to coerce victims into handing over money.
It makes up some 42% of all fraud recorded in France in 2025,and saw a 34% increase compared to the previous year.
Fraud payments via bank transfers (asking victims to send money or grant access to accounts) are now more profitable for scammers than bank card related fraud.
Despite being only 4% of the total amount of fraudulent transactions, payment by bank transfer resulted in €485 million in losses. The average fraud loss via bank transfer is 25 times higher than that of bank card payments.
Spending increase, technology boost
The report also tracked French spending habits, which are now dominated by technology.
French consumers spent €36.264 trillion via card, cheque, bank transfer, or direct debit, in 2025, a 4.2% increase on 2024.
Of this, bank card payments accounted for 63% of all payments. Only 0.047% of transactions were fraudulent, the lowest ever.
Fraud for online card payments has halved since 2020.
In contrast, cheque usage – which has dropped 46% since 2020 – has a higher, 0.069%, fraud rate.
A payment method that performed strongly was the new ‘instant transfers’, which can make instant payments between banks without having to wait for verification.
These now account for 17% of all transfers, with a 0.041% fraud rate.
To help further reduce the risk of fraud, the Banque de France launched a national database of accounts flagged for fraudulent instant transfers (sent or received) in May 2026. It allows institutions to flag IBANs (bank numbers) deemed suspicious for further investigation.
