“The Mayor of Paris directs you to the best craftsmen in the city. Get help, not scam.” It is a leaflet that we find posted in many building boxes, and that probably hundreds, if not thousands, of Parisians have found in their mailboxes. We have seen it ourselves in different districts. On this cardboard poster of around ten centimeters, we can see in very large size the logo of the City of Paris, images with taps, heaters or showers, and a series of home repair numbers (door opening, plumbing, electricity, locksmithing, etc.) mixed with the very official numbers of Paris City Hall and the police headquarters. Except that the logo is completely usurped here, and that the flyer leads to scams, contrary to what is promised.
“There are thousands of flyers of this type in all Parisian mailboxes, with varying degrees of logo resemblance or blue, white and red,” explains the Paris prosecutor’s office. According to the town hall, five flyers of this type are currently in circulation, published in large quantities, “generally the same and probably by the same network”. Their strategy is to flood neighborhoods for several weeks to hit all the mailboxes, particularly those in outlying districts.
Jacques (his first name has been changed), a guard in the 19th arrondissement, whose lodge displays the famous prospectus bearing the “Ville de Paris” logo, once witnessed one of these scams, when a resident of the building had accidentally let his door close behind him. The fake convenience store then asked for an exorbitant sum, and in cash. “It was the same kind of leaflet, it’s true, blue and white,” he remembers, before taking down this misleading advertisement from his wall.
800 reports each year
“Unfortunately this type of scam is quite regular,” laments the security assistant at Paris City Hall, Nicolas Nordman. The Departmental Directorate for Population Protection (DDPP), which is responsible for ensuring proper compliance with consumer law by companies and depends on the Paris Police Prefecture, “receives more than 800 reports from consumers concerning the home repair sector”, according to the town hall. The city specifies that “the practices denounced mainly concern a price level perceived as abusive, unnecessary work, attempts at intimidation or even a false promise of covering costs by home insurance”. 38 reports were drawn up in 2021.
But these processes are far from new. Paris City Hall initiated a procedure against this type of fraud in 2007. Since then, communication campaigns have followed one another, as in 2017 And 2018.
A web page to inform Parisians
To fight against these scams, the administration first tries to compile solid files, not simply on the basis of identity or logo theft, in other words. “We don’t respond piecemeal. For a complaint to be followed up by the prosecution and for a certain number of networks to be dismantled, the complaint must be as substantiated as possible,” explains Nicolas Nordman.
The town hall’s strategy is also focused on prevention, informing Parisians as much as possible. For this reason, the town hall recently updated its website, and in particular the page “ Stop scams from home repair companies! “. This page reminds us that the “law of March 17, 2014 (known as the Hamon law) prohibits the use in these advertisements of drawings, contact details, references or other distinctive signs relating to a public service without the prior authorization of the service concerned. Failure to comply with these obligations is punishable by an administrative fine (100,000 euros maximum). »
Internet users are invited to report any prospectus that seems suspicious to them on the government website Consumer signal. In an awareness flyer, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control reminds us that we must favor “the use of professionals recommended by your loved ones, by professional federations, or previously identified” and that “a written and detailed estimate” must be required before any intervention. And to conclude: “Do not sign any quote that seems excessive to you.”