Get a free Reputation Analysis report to see if your customers are at risk. Individuals can check with their phone carrier to see if it mobile number list offers any spam/scam-blocking capabilities. CPF Scams Target French Citizens It seems that each country has a phone scam that is unique to it. For France, it’s the CPF scam. Compte Personnel de Formation (CPF) is a program set up by the government that allows French citizens to take professional training courses during their working years. These “training rights” are automatically credited each year to the individual’s CPF account by employers.
The program was created in 2015, but in 2019 it switched from crediting citizens in training hours to crediting them in euros, up to a cap of €5,000. An article from News in France calls CPF “a goldmine for scammers.” It reports that fake companies have flourished, offering training programs to scam people out of their CPF funds. It also notes that the amount of money lost to CPF fraud was 43 million euros in 2021, according to an annual report from France’s Ministry of the Economy. Variations of the CPF scam The French government is well aware of CPF fraud and even cautions citizens to beware.