E-invoicing France: Spotting Fake DGFiP Emails & Scams

Key takeaways

• The DGFiP (French tax authority) did send mass emails to VAT-liable businesses reminding them to designate an approved platform: the message exists and is legitimate, the administration circulated it widely, so receiving this email is not in itself a sign of a scam.
• The decisive test comes down to one sentence: a genuine tax authority message never asks you to pay, to enter a password, or to click to "activate" anything. No action is required on the email itself.
• The only proof of approval is the exact name of the operator on the list published by the DGFiP on impots.gouv.fr, the official tax portal: that is the only site that counts as authoritative.
• A logo, a "compliant" brochure or a LinkedIn profile prove nothing: only the exact operator name on the official list counts as valid.

Is the email asking me to choose a platform genuine or fake?

Both exist, and that is the whole problem. Since spring 2026, thousands of French businesses have been receiving emails inviting them to choose an e-invoicing platform. These messages look official. Some are. Others are carefully disguised phishing attempts exploiting the reform's entry into force on 1 September 2026.

The DGFiP's information campaign is real: the administration launched a large-scale campaign to remind all French businesses that they must designate a platform to receive electronic invoices. The content of a genuine message is purely informational. It contains no account to create within the hour, no fine to pay, no form to fill in as an attachment.

On the fraud side, the patterns are well known: fake DGFiP emails using .info or .com domains, or domains with extra hyphens, asking for payment or login credentials, and fake "approved platforms" that do not appear on the official list on impots.gouv.fr.

A genuine DGFiP message informs you of an obligation; a scam demands immediate action.

How can I check in three minutes, without clicking the email?

Take the email, do not click on anything, and open your browser separately. Three steps are enough.

1. Log in to your Professional account via your bookmarks. The list of approved platforms can be viewed on impots.gouv.fr: Professionnel > Gérer mon entreprise/association > Je passe à la facturation électronique > Je consulte la liste des plateformes agréées ("Manage my business/association" > "I am switching to e-invoicing" > "I consult the list of approved platforms"). If an important message concerns you, your account will reflect it.

2. Look for the exact operator name mentioned in the email. Download the file listing registered operators, available in ODS, XLSX and PDF formats, then search for the entity's exact name, since registration sometimes applies to a dedicated subsidiary. A similar-sounding name does not count.

3. Examine the sender's domain and any links. Never validate an operator based solely on a link received in an email: use an official address you have already verified independently.

If in doubt, the administration's guidance is clear: contact your local Centre des Finances publiques (Public Finance Centre), whose details can be found under the Contacts section.

What signals give away a scam?

A fake message almost always combines authority, urgency and fear of penalty. The typical scenario: a fake advisor calls the management, the finance department or the accounting team and claims the business risks a fine because it allegedly failed to choose its platform in time, then offers to "unblock the file" in exchange for immediate payment, or asks for remote access to the workstation.

Another, harder-to-spot variant is the fake platform: the fraudster creates a website or a sales pitch that imitates an approved platform, promising free registration, a free audit or immediate compliance, with the aim of charging a fictitious fee, collecting sensitive documents, or gaining access to the financial process.

A useful reminder on the substance of the matter: scams impersonating the DGFiP have been circulating for several months; these are phishing attempts, and you should not respond to them.

What should I actually do before 1 September 2026?

Choose an approved platform and register it, nothing more complicated than that. The action to plan for is selecting an approved platform to receive your electronic invoices. VAT-liable businesses must use the services of an approved platform to send and receive their electronic invoices and transmit transaction and payment data to the administration from 1 September 2026 onwards.

Concrete example. A 40-person accounting firm receives 300 supplier invoices per month. Its task ahead of the deadline: check with its software provider whether it is itself approved or connected to an approved platform, then register this choice in the directory. The business remains free to choose one, or several, of the registered platforms listed on the impots.gouv.fr portal.

Watch out for a costly vocabulary trap: the most expensive confusion is between the approved platform and the "compatible solution". A compatible solution operates upstream or downstream to prepare your invoices, but it cannot ensure compliance on its own or transmit your data to the DGFiP. Only the approved platform carries these regulatory responsibilities. If you want the full detail on the timeline and the roles involved, Sygnet maintains a resource on e-invoicing in France, and another on the penalties involved.

Will the reform eliminate fake invoices?

No, not the ones that arrive outside the mandatory channel. This is the most common misunderstanding. An invoice subject to the obligation can no longer be sent from just any email address: it is issued from an approved platform account linked to an identified SIREN (French business registration number), then routed to the recipient's platform via the directory.

But a request to change bank details received by phone, by email outside the mandatory channel, or via a document attached to an ordinary message remains exactly as risky as before the reform: the closed loop only applies to invoices that pass through it. In fact, fraud involving fake suppliers or changed bank details is not specifically targeted by the reform's founding texts, whose primary objective is VAT.

The basic precaution remains the same: any new IBAN (International Bank Account Number) must be confirmed through a second, known channel, and invoicing accounts must be protected with named user access and strong authentication.

A secure channel for compliant invoices does not secure the messages that bypass it, and fraudsters target precisely those.

On the tooling side, checking bank details and comparing them against supplier history can be automated: that is Sygnet's core business, extracting structured data from documents such as a bank account confirmation or IBAN and applying document fraud detection rules.

FAQ

Is the DGFiP email about e-invoicing a scam?

Not necessarily. The DGFiP sent this message en masse to all VAT-liable French businesses. The genuine message is informational: it reminds you of the deadline and refers you to impots.gouv.fr. It asks for no click, no password, no payment. As soon as one of these three elements appears, treat the message as fraudulent and do not respond.

How can I check that a platform is genuinely approved?

Check the official list, never the operator's own website. To verify that a platform is registered, consult the official list published and regularly updated by the DGFiP on the tax authority's website. Two clarifications: two statuses coexist, final registration and provisional registration, and a platform that was once registered can later be removed from the register. So double-check before signing anything.

Are self-employed contractors (auto-entrepreneurs) affected?

Yes. All self-employed contractors are affected, including those under the VAT exemption threshold. For receiving invoices, the deadline is the same as for other businesses. For issuing invoices, from September 2027 onwards, it will no longer be possible to send invoices by simple email or PDF; an approved platform will be required.

How many approved platforms are there in France?

The number is changing fast. On 16 January 2026, the DGFiP published the list of the first 101 approved platforms that had passed all the required regulatory and interoperability tests, and figures published since then put the count at 166 registered approved platforms. Do not rely on a number read in an article: check the current list on impots.gouv.fr.