The Paris police prefecture has warned on its Twitter account against scams with false petitions, particularly targeting the many French and foreign tourists in the capital. These scammers sometimes ask for money.
The prefectural services have called on tourists to be wary of “people who cannot claim to be from a recognised association and who approach you, petition in hand, to make you sign a document or ask for money”.
Particularly popular with these scammers, are some of the capital’s most touristy spots, such as the Champ-de-Mars or the Champs-Elysées, are often the target of large-scale police operations aimed at reassuring Parisians and travellers against street sales, theft and crime in general.
“There are 20 million tourists who come to the Champ-de-Mars site and seven [million] who visit the Eiffel Tower. Inevitably, this is an attractive public for criminals,” said Isabelle Tomatis, head of the Parisian local security department (DSPAP), speaking to BFM Paris-Île-de-France last April.
With the end of the health crisis, tourists are back in the capital, prompting the police to repeat this type of operation frequently. According to responses on social media, most of the false petitioners were from the Roma community. The police would not comment on the ethnicity of the perpetrators however.
https://freewestmedia.com/2022/10/20/paris-police-warn-tourists-against-fake-petition-scams/