Telephone canvassing is often perceived as an invasion of privacy (which is not entirely false) and is governed by strict rules in France. Since 2023, new legislation aims to limit abuse and protect consumers from incessant calls. Today, one in four French people are victims of telephone harassment, and a majority of them have decided to simply stop answering the phone.
The area codes follow
The January 2023 law is intended to be a turning point in the regulation of telephone canvassing, although the initial results are very limited. From now on, commercial calls can theoretically no longer be made from numbers beginning with 06 or 07, which are associated with personal mobile lines.
The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (ARCEP) has imposed the use of specific codes for these calls. Telephone advisors who use telephone canvassing must use numbers beginning with: 0162, 0163, 0270, 0271, 0377, 0378, 0424, 0425, 0568, 0569, 0948 or 0949 in mainland France. If you receive a call that begins with these numbers, it is therefore necessarily telephone canvassing.
Furthermore, the legal framework imposes restrictions on the hours and frequency of calls. Canvassers can only contact French people from Monday to Friday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Calls are prohibited on Saturdays, Sundays, and all public holidays. Furthermore, the same customer cannot be contacted more than four times in a thirty-day period.
Officially, if the customer refuses a canvass during a call, they cannot be contacted again for sixty days. “Officially.” Unfortunately, the rules are still not respected. To avoid this nightmare, some French people are turning to apps like Begone or Orange Téléphone to block calls.
What about OnOff?
Alongside these regulations and the area codes explicitly mentioned by ARCEP, the OnOff app is raising questions about whether it is being misused by certain scammers. Designed to Originally designed to allow users to obtain a second virtual number via the same SIM card, this application is sometimes exploited by fraudsters. They use OnOff to obtain French numbers beginning with 06 or 07 in order to appear credible to their victims.
Be careful, do not believe that all OnOff users are scammers. The application is also popular with expatriates or professionals who want a flexible and economical solution to manage multiple phone lines. Since March 2023, Arcep has awarded On/Off specific number series: 06.44.66 to 06.44.69 and 07.56.8 to 07.56.9. If you receive a call from one of these area codes, it may be a solicitor.
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