The Bank of France and the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) issued a warning about fraud attempts involving identity theft of the institutions and their senior officials, including Governor François Villeroy de Galhau and ACPR Secretary General Emmanuelle Assouan. The alert covers scams using phone calls, emails and social media messages to redirect victims to fraudulent sites or extract money through purported fees and transactions. Fraudsters may use artificial intelligence to create deepfakes of leaders to disseminate fake messages online and increase credibility. Typical approaches promise a large transfer (such as an inheritance or funds allegedly held in a savings account) on condition that the victim pays various fees in advance or carries out operations by phone, and can also rely on impersonating other executives, including in payments and financial supervision. The Bank of France and ACPR underline that none of their leaders will ever recommend a specific website or financial product, and report that these schemes are being actively monitored with the competent authorities while encouraging platforms to help detect scams.
Bank of France 2026-04-27
Bank of France and Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority warn of AI-enabled impersonation scams targeting the public
The Bank of France and the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority warned of fraud involving identity theft of the institutions and senior officials, including AI-generated deepfakes. Scams use phone, email and social media to redirect victims to fraudulent sites or extract money via advance fees. The authorities stressed their leaders will never recommend specific websites or financial products and said they are monitoring these schemes with competent authorities while urging platforms to help detect them.