Fight against scams

Telephone canvassing: the rules for displaying telephone numbers are changing

Publié le 22 décembre 2025 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Many fraudulent callers manage to randomly spoof phone numbers, including mobile numbers of individuals, to impersonate a trusted entity. From 1er in january 2026, an evolution regarding the rules for displaying telephone numbers will make it easier to spot these calls.

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Image 1Crédits: Tetiana - stock.adobe.com

Have you ever heard of phone spoofing?

This fraud consists, for a scammer, in using specialized software in order to hide his telephone number and to display another one (usually starting with 06 or 07) during calls. The number displayed on the telephone of the caller may be that of a person, a company or a government institution. The scammer can thus mask his real identity and pass himself off as a trusted entity, for example.

Everyone's phone number can therefore be used for solicitation or scam attempts.

Please note

Different signs may suggest that your phone number has been spoofed. For example:

  • an increase in calls from numbers you don't know, with callers telling you that you tried to reach them (your number may have been used without your knowledge in phone spoofing calls, and the recipients of these calls are likely to call back your number in case of a missed call);
  • warning messages from your phone company, having detected suspicious activity with your phone number;
  • a report by several people of attempts to solicit or scam through calls from your phone number.

Nearly 18,000 reports of identity theft of this type have been recorded on the dedicated platform “I alert Arcep”between January and December 2025.

What changes will be made from 1 January 2026 to combat these scams?

Arcep (French regulator for electronic communications, postal services and press distribution) reports that many fraudulent calls using spoofed telephone numbers are made from the foreigner.

From 1er in january 2026, french telephone operators will have to display “hidden number” for calls made from the foreigner with a french mobile number that could not be authenticated.

So, when you see “hidden number” on your mobile phone, it will mean, at your choice:

  • that the person calling you wanted to hide their number;
  • that the call number could not be authenticated for technical reasons (without prejudice to the legitimate or non-legitimate nature of the call).

This will allow you to identify that this is potentially a scam attempt, and will need to arouse your vigilance.

Please note

Telephony operators have technical protocols in place to ensure the authenticity of a ‘roaming’ subscriber’s number (the device that allows a subscriber to use his or her phone when traveling in a foreigner country or in a national area not covered by the infrastructure of his or her operator).

The implementation of these protocols is gradual. Currently, more than 80% of calls made by French roaming subscribers are authenticated by these protocols. Once these are fully deployed, phone operators will be able to distinguish between real roaming calls and fraudulent calls made from abroad that display a spoofed mobile number.

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