Following an investment fraud that affected many people, some victims are now receiving calls or emails from individuals claiming to represent the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), France’s financial markets regulator. These scammers offer to help victims recover their lost money in exchange for new fees. Since January 2026, the AMF has added 40 cases of identity theft to its blacklist. A survey conducted by BVA in September 2024 on behalf of the AMF found that 66% of people who had been victims of a similar fraud in 2023 had been contacted again by individuals offering to recover their funds. In 21% of these cases, the contact falsely claimed to represent the AMF, while fake bank advisors came in second, with 24% of cases. Since 2024, over 150 AMF-related identity theft cases have been added to the blacklist. According to the AMF’s 2025 annual report, released in June 2025, the AMF and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR), another financial regulator, detected several hundred identity theft cases in 2024. These included scams using the names of the two authorities and their staff. Details of these scams are made public, as the AMF uploads its blacklists as open data on the government website data.gouv.fr. In a file uploaded on September 22, 2026, out of 3,460 entries, 190 were classified under "Usurpation_AMF" (AMF impersonation). In 2024, 47 such cases were added, compared to 65 in 2025. Between January 1 and September 11, 2026, the AMF added 40 new entries, including 11 in September alone. Scammers often use the AMF’s acronym in various forms in their email addresses, such as dep-recouvrement@amf-europe.com or support@antifraude-amf.com. On September 10, the AMF added the domain autorite-des-marches-financiers.com to its list. Other fake agents use free email services like Gmail or Tuta, with addresses such as infoamfofficiel@gmail.com or amf-france.finance@tuta.com. On September 4, the AMF added eight such addresses in a single day. Some of these were linked to Indian (.co.in) and Brazilian (.eng.br) domain names, unrelated to the AMF. These scammers also use terms like “recovery” and “investigation” in their email domains, such as infodesk@rapidrecovery.online or mica-forensic.com. According to the BVA survey, 92% of scammers who recontact victims encourage them to pay new fees under the guise of legal or tax charges, and 86% of victims end up paying. Among those who paid, one in four paid more than 1,200 euros, and nearly one in three paid between 500 and 1,200 euros. Some scammers even request fees in the name of public institutions. In early September 2026, the Caisse des Dépôts, a public financial institution, issued a warning about fake advisors demanding “file processing fees” to unlock fictitious funds. To verify the legitimacy of a contact, individuals can check an email address or website against the AMF’s blacklists or call the AMF’s Epargne Info Service at 01 53 45 62 00. The AMF advises people to look up contact details themselves rather than using numbers or links provided by the contact. It also emphasizes that it never schedules in-person appointments or conducts phone-based fraud awareness campaigns. To report suspected scams, individuals can call 0 805 805 817 to reach Info Escroqueries for free. The AMF cautions, however, that its blacklists are regularly updated but not always comprehensive. If a company is not listed, the regulator advises checking whether it has the necessary legal authorizations.