Scam victim in France: your rights as a foreigner

What happened to you, and what the law says

You paid for something that did not exist

A deposit for a flat you only saw in photos, fees for a job offer, a prefecture appointment sold on a social network. This is fraud (escroquerie, article 313-1 of the Code pénal), punished by five years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros, and more when the offender pretends to be a public official or takes advantage of the victim's vulnerability (article 313-2). You can file a complaint, take action with your bank and, under certain conditions, claim compensation. You cannot obtain a residence permit simply because you were deceived.

Page of the firm: Housing scam in Bordeaux.

You were exploited: undignified housing, unpaid work, coercion

An overcrowded flat rented at a high price because you have no papers, an employer who keeps your documents, a person who brought you to France and holds you through debt. The law punishes anyone who subjects a person, whose vulnerability or dependence is obvious or known to them, to working or housing conditions incompatible with human dignity (article 225-14 of the Code pénal, seven years in prison), and human trafficking (article 225-4-1).

The victim of undignified housing who files a complaint receives a one-year "private and family life" permit (carte "vie privée et familiale"), renewed during the criminal proceedings (article L. 425-11). The victim of trafficking or pimping who files a complaint or testifies, and who has broken all ties with the offender, receives the same permit, with the right to work. If the offender is finally convicted, a resident card (carte de résident) is issued, provided the victim's stay is lawful (articles L. 425-1 and L. 425-3). Exploitation at work alone does not open a specific permit: it gives access to one only if the facts amount to trafficking, which the firm assesses with you before any complaint.

Page of the firm: Does a complaint give me papers?

You were sold papers, an appointment, a fake lawyer

An "adviser" paid for an ANEF file, a fake law firm, a work contract bought for a regularisation. You are the victim of fraud and, often, of the unlawful use of the title of lawyer (article 433-17 of the Code pénal, article 74 of the law of 31 December 1971). You may also be exposed yourself: if a false document was handed to the prefecture in your name, the administration can withdraw at any time a permit obtained by fraud (article L. 241-2 of the Code des relations entre le public et l'administration) and report the facts to the public prosecutor. So the firm reads your file before talking about a complaint: which document was filed, by whom, what you knew. The complaint comes afterwards, and your residence file is taken up again on its real merits.

Page of the firm: I paid a fake lawyer or an intermediary for my residence permit.

Getting your money back: what is possible

If the transaction was made without your consent, your bank must refund you by the end of the next working day after your report, unless it suspects fraud on your part and informs the Banque de France (article L. 133-18), or unless it proves gross negligence on your part (articles L. 133-19 and L. 133-23). In a case decided on 23 October 2024, the Cour de cassation ruled out gross negligence for a customer who was put at ease by a call showing their bank's phone number; on 4 March 2026, it recalled that approving a message that clearly announces a payment can be gross negligence.

If you made the transfer yourself, the transaction is authorised and the bank does not have to refund you. It must try to recover the funds (article L. 133-21) and give you the information you need to take legal action. The money is then recovered from the offender, once identified through the investigation, or through the compensation board for crime victims (commission d'indemnisation des victimes d'infractions, CIVI). It can compensate the victim of a fraud who cannot obtain any compensation elsewhere and is in a serious material or psychological situation, subject to a means test, provided the facts took place in France (articles 706-3 and 706-14 of the Code de procédure pénale) without any requirement of lawful residence. The claim must be filed within three years of the offence (article 706-5).