Sophie
22 June 2026 · 6 min read
A fake parcel notice, a fine "to be paid before tonight", a text from your "bank" asking you to confirm a transfer: in 2026, fraudulent messages are flooding French phones. It's called smishing — a blend of SMS and phishing — and the numbers are staggering.
The good news: these scams almost always rely on the same tricks, and new rules that came into force this year are making life harder for the fraudsters. Here's how to recognise a booby-trapped text, what to do when you get one, and why a service like ours has nothing to do with these practices.
Photo: Unsplash — a fraudulent SMS often imitates a well-known brand or public body.
What exactly is smishing?
Smishing is a phishing attempt sent by SMS. The scammer poses as a trusted party — a courier, a public body, a bank, an operator — and pushes you to click a link or call a number back. The goal: to steal your login details or banking information, or to get you to install malware.
SMS remains a frighteningly effective channel for fraudsters: it's universal, opened by nearly everyone, and feels trustworthy. That's exactly what makes it such a valuable legitimate channel when you send a real SMS — which is why telling the two apart matters so much.
Why these scams are exploding in 2026
The French telecoms regulator, Arcep, sounded the alarm in early 2026: reports of telecom scams (fraudulent calls and texts combined) jumped by more than 110% in a single year. Reports of number usurpation alone passed 19,000 cases in 2025, a rise of around 123%.
Several factors explain the surge: increasingly accessible bulk-sending tools, better-written messages (sometimes AI-assisted), and a shift by fraudsters away from email toward SMS, seen as more immediate and harder to filter.
The most common SMS scams
Most campaigns revolve around a handful of recurring scenarios. Recognising them is already half the battle:
| Scenario | What the SMS says | The trap |
|---|---|---|
| Fake parcel | "Your parcel is on hold, pay a €1.99 fee" | Link to a fake payment page |
| Fake fine | "Unpaid penalty notice, surcharge imminent" | Theft of card details |
| Fake bank adviser | "Transfer attempt detected, confirm here" | Call back to a fake number, rigged transfer |
| Health card scam | "Your health card is expiring, update it" | Harvesting of personal data |
| Fake training account | "Your hours are expiring, activate your account" | Phishing of login details |
The fake bank adviser is the costliest: this type of fraud alone has accounted for several hundred million euros in losses in France in recent years.
Photo: Unsplash — when in doubt, never click the link and verify through an official channel.
What's changing in 2026: the end of easy spoofing
Until now, scammers could easily "spoof" a French 06 or 07 mobile number to look credible. France's Naegelen law and its Number Authentication Mechanism (MAN), rolled out by operators, are changing that.
Since 1 January 2026, a call made from abroad using a French mobile number that can't be authenticated is blocked or shown as "withheld number". Operators now have to verify the origin of each call before routing it. It's the same network modernisation and clean-up logic that goes with the 2G shutdown and the end of the copper network and ADSL.
The measure mainly targets calls, but it gradually dries up the fraud ecosystem that also feeds SMS campaigns. Scammers adapt by using real numbers, however, so staying alert remains essential.
How to recognise a fraudulent text
A few signals should set off alarm bells straight away:
- A shortened link or an address that has nothing to do with the named organisation.
- A sense of urgency ("within 24h", "final reminder", "account suspended").
- A request for payment of a few euros, or for banking details.
- Typos, awkward wording, or an unusual sender number.
- A request you weren't expecting (a parcel you didn't order, an unknown fine).
When in doubt, don't click: go straight to the organisation's official website, or call its usual number. To clearly separate a legitimate message from a scam attempt, our guide on protecting your privacy when texting usefully rounds out these habits.
What to do if you receive a suspicious text
- Don't click any link and don't call back any number listed.
- Report it to 33700: simply forward the SMS to that number (free of charge), the operators' anti-spam platform. Based on these reports, operators can shut down fraudulent numbers.
- Delete the message.
- If you shared any data, contact your bank immediately and block the transaction.
Worth knowing: depending on your recipient's operator, anti-spam filters don't all behave the same way — a point we covered in our article on the operators our texts are delivered to.
And where do our free texts fit in?
Our service is the opposite of these practices: it lets you send an SMS for free from the internet, with no sign-up, no ads and no booby-trapped link. We never send a message asking you for a payment or for login details. An SMS remains one of the simplest, most universal ways to reach someone — as long as it's used honestly, unlike RCS and the newer formats we compared in RCS vs SMS.
For any question about the legitimate use of our tool, our FAQ, our contact page and our legal notice are there to help.
Frequently asked questions
Does reporting to 33700 cost anything? No. Forwarding a suspicious SMS to 33700 is free and takes only a few seconds.
Can an SMS hack my phone without me clicking? In the vast majority of cases, it's the click on the link (or calling the number back) that triggers the scam. Receiving the message isn't enough: don't click, report it, delete it.
Do the new 2026 rules make smishing disappear? They make number spoofing harder, but they don't remove the risk. Your own vigilance is still the best protection.
In short
Smishing is hitting new highs in 2026, but it relies on familiar scenarios: fake parcels, fake fines, fake bank advisers. The new number-authentication rules are gradually cleaning up the network, and the 33700 reflex remains your best ally. And to reach someone with full confidence, you can always send a free SMS with us: no link, no sign-up, no trap.
