The fake fine and fake tax scam

These messages pull two contrary but equally formidable levers. The first brandishes an unpaid fine about to be increased, and pushes you to pay quickly to dodge the penalty. The second promises a pending tax refund, and asks for your bank details to pay it out. In both cases, the target page mimics a public site and captures a means of payment or bank details.

How this scam works

The "fine" version sometimes puts forward a plausible registration or date, drawn from a cross-check or simply invented. The "refund" version proves more insidious: it doesn't ask for money, which lulls your wariness, but for bank details — which are enough to set up other frauds. The tax office, for its part, only refunds to an account already registered in your personal space.

How to spot it

• A tax refund is promised to you when no declared situation justifies it.
• The page's address is not a gouv.fr domain, or inserts a word before it.
• The message demands bank details, when the administration relies on those already in your space.
• A fine is announced to you without the slightest penalty notice received by post.

What to do after receiving this message

1. 1

   Discard the link offered

   Access your personal space by typing the official address yourself: any real notice is recorded there.

2. 2

   Check from your personal space

   Both fine and refund appear in your space. Their absence is enough to settle the matter.

3. 3

   Forward to 33700

   Forward the message, then send back the sender's number at the service's request.

4. 4

   Warn those around you

   These two versions strike en masse, and the "refund" variant deceives even wary people because it doesn't ask for money.

Your frequently asked questions

SMS Anonyme has no connection with the organisations mentioned on these pages, cited only because crooks hijack their names. Our service is moreover confined to personal, one-off sends, from a masked number: it broadcasts no campaign or commercial message, and could not be the source of a fraudulent SMS received under our name or that of a third party.