Fraudsters posing as Binance, Meria and bank support staff are targeting French crypto holders with urgent calls claiming their accounts or wallets are compromised. The scammers direct victims to transfer assets to attacker-controlled wallets and may impersonate police, customs officers, gendarmes or magistrates to obtain recovery seeds and other sensitive information. Meria founder Owen Simonin, known as Hasheur, warned in a Sept. 20 post on X that breaches across private companies and public agencies are helping criminals identify crypto holders and their platforms, while artificial intelligence could increase the volume of fraudulent calls. France’s DGFiP disclosed that an intruder used a stolen identity to access personal and tax records in a breach that began in late June and was closed by month-end; estimates of exposure range from 678,000 taxpayers to millions of people. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr reported the pattern on Jan. 22 through its 17Cyber helpline and noted a preliminary investigation into crypto firm Waltio. The phone fraud is unfolding alongside violent attacks targeting crypto holders: Pavel Durov said France recorded 41 kidnappings in the first three and a half months of 2026, while Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez reported 77 crypto-linked kidnappings, unlawful detentions, extortions or attempts by the end of June, compared with 45 in all of 2025. About 200 people have been arrested after attacks or in preventive operations. Simonin and state agencies say legitimate platforms do not call customers unexpectedly to demand transactions or sensitive information.