Shops: France considering Sunday opening in December

Industry Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said in an interview with news source Radio J yesterday (November 22) that the government was looking “favourably” on a proposal to open shops on Sundays in December.

She said: “We are looking at this approach favourably, even more so as it would allow the respect of [health] measures. But our guide is the balance between the economy and health.”

Ms Pannier-Runacher also said that proposals to allow shops to stay open later in the evening in December were under discussion.

Post office warns of parcel delivery scam

This comes as postal service La Poste are alerting customers to a new scam targeting parcels - the number of which being delivered has risen due to a spike in online shopping under lockdown.

Gabriel de Brosses, head of cybersecurity at La Poste, told news source RTL some customers have notified the service that they have received an SMS asking them to pay €2 in order for a parcel to be delivered to them. He said such scams had risen while people were working from home this year and had therefore been more likely to make purchases online.

The SMS states that the €2 is to cover postage fees, but this is false. La Poste does not ask people to pay to receive packages.

The scam aims to get people who receive the message to reveal their bank details. The message contains a link leading to a page where payment details can be entered and then reused by the scam operators. Mr de Brosse said: “People enter the details for their bank cards and that’s how they are scammed.”

He added: “Do not click on links in emails. Never click on a link sent by SMS.”

If you have already clicked on a link that you think may be a scam, contact your bank for further advice.

You can also notify the government service for deactivating online scams at: cybermalveillance.gouv.fr

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