Warning over fake gendarmes call-back phone scam

Phone calls purporting to be from gendarmes that ask people to call a particular number are a scam, authorities have warned.

The gendarmerie du Nord issued the warning over so-called 'ping calls', which often messages intended to convince victims to call a premium-rate phone line based in Mali.

"If you receive a call on your fixed or mobile phone trying to sell your a particular product, or if you are asked to call back an unknown number, you are the victim of a ping call," warns the Northern Gendarmerie on its Facebook account.

"Never call back an unknown number," gendarmes said. They added that people can ask their phone-line operator to remove their number from the publicly available phone lists and at the same time register on bloctel here http://www.bloctel.gouv.fr

If you receive an unsolicited message, you can also send an SMS with the one-word message "spamvocal" to 33700 or connect to the site https://www.33700.fr/