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Owen Simonin is sounding the alarm. The founder and CEO of French crypto platform Meria — better known online as Hasheur — says fraudulent calls targeting crypto users in France have spiked sharply, and the trail leads straight back to a string of recent data leaks hitting both private companies and public institutions.
The scam playbook is pretty straightforward, and that’s what makes it dangerous. Fraudsters get hold of leaked personal data, figure out which victims hold crypto and on which platforms, then call them posing as customer service reps from legitimate exchanges — Binance and Meria are both being impersonated. The caller tells the victim their funds are at risk. Urgency kicks in. The victim panics, and transfers money to what they’re told is a “safe account.” By the time they realize what happened, the crypto is gone. Irreversible, fast, untraceable — basically the perfect crime for a scammer with the right data.
How Leaked Data Turns Into Targeted Fraud
Simonin’s core concern is the intersection of multiple data leaks at once. It’s not just one breach feeding these calls — it’s several, layered on top of each other, from both corporate and government sources. When scammers can cross-reference leaked data from different places, they can build a pretty detailed picture of a target: name, contact details, tax records, and which crypto platforms they use. That combination makes the fraudulent calls feel authentic. The victim thinks, how would this person know all this about me if they weren’t from my exchange?
The big one that’s gotten attention is the August breach at the General Directorate of Public Finances — the DGFiP, France’s main tax agency. Hackers got into their systems and walked away with personal data belonging to roughly 678,000 taxpayers. That’s not a small number. And for scammers hunting crypto holders, a government tax database is kind of a goldmine: it links real identities to financial activity in ways that corporate leaks sometimes don’t.
Simonin didn’t specify exactly which private-sector breaches he was referring to alongside the DGFiP incident. No details on the companies involved. But his point was clear — the leaks aren’t isolated, and the cumulative effect is what’s really dangerous.
AI Could Make This Much Worse
Right now, these scam calls seem to still be largely human-operated. But Simonin warned that won’t last. As AI tools get cheaper and more capable, fraudsters will be able to automate these calls at scale — more calls, more targets, more convincing voices. The frequency of attacks could increase dramatically, and the sophistication of each individual call could improve too. That’s a bad combination.
For now, his advice to users is simple: legitimate platforms don’t cold-call customers out of nowhere asking them to move funds or hand over personal information. If you haven’t raised a specific issue with your exchange, and they’re suddenly calling you about an emergency with your account, that’s not your exchange. Hang up.
It sounds obvious. But the psychological pressure these callers apply — the urgency, the fear of losing money, the imitation of professional customer service language — works. Crypto transactions move fast and can’t be reversed, which is exactly why scammers love this space. The window between “I’m scared my funds are at risk” and “the money is gone” is very short.
The broader backdrop here is that crypto adoption in France, and across Europe generally, has grown enough that ordinary retail holders are now on scammers’ radar in a way they weren’t a few years ago. It’s not just sophisticated traders getting targeted. It’s regular people who bought some Bitcoin or held assets on an exchange, whose data ended up in a leak they probably didn’t even hear about.
What Platforms and Users Can Do
Simonin’s warnings put pressure on crypto platforms to get more proactive. Clearer communication with users about what legitimate contact from the platform looks like — and what it doesn’t — seems like a basic starting point. If users know that Meria or Binance will never call them unsolicited to request a transfer, that’s one less lever scammers can pull.
The DGFiP breach alone put 678,000 people at elevated risk. Cross that with private-sector leaks, add AI-powered automation on the horizon, and the scam call problem in France probably gets worse before it gets better.
Simonin hasn’t said whether Meria plans specific new security measures in response. No details on that yet.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many French taxpayers had their data exposed in the DGFiP breach?
The General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) breach in August exposed the personal data of approximately 678,000 taxpayers, according to information shared by Simonin.
Which crypto exchanges are scammers impersonating in these fraudulent calls?
Scammers have been impersonating customer service representatives from Binance and Meria, the crypto platform founded and led by Owen Simonin.
Why It Matters
The surge in fraudulent activities targeting crypto users in France highlights the vulnerabilities in the intersection of data security and digital asset ownership, raising concerns among investors about the safety of their personal information. This incident not only underscores the potential risks associated with data breaches but also reflects broader challenges in the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies, as authorities grapple with protecting consumers in an increasingly digital financial ecosystem. As scams proliferate, the need for enhanced security measures and consumer education becomes paramount to maintain trust in the crypto market.
