France combats smishing scams and expands illicit‑content detection tools

Since late June 2025, France has seen a wave of smishing messages that begin with a short text such as “Bonjour, vous êtes chez vous ?” and later claim a blocked parcel, directing recipients to a counterfeit delivery site. Media outlets including TF1, Capital and Ouest‑France have detailed the three‑step fraud pattern and advised users to ignore the initial SMS, verify the sender through official channels and report the message via the free 33700 service.

At the same time, French startup Moderering has announced that its AI‑driven engine for detecting illegal online content will be provided free of charge to French and European governmental agencies until 30 September 2026. The tool, which combines automated analysis with human supervision, aims to help investigators tackle crimes such as cyber‑harassment, sextortion and non‑consensual sexual content. Founder and CEO Alexandre Sossou highlighted that 125 000 French victims of digital abuse were recorded in 2024, underscoring the need for faster, technology‑enabled investigations.