This message from Social Security arrives by SMS: it's a scam, watch out for your bank account

Many French people have recently received this fraudulent message and many have almost been trapped.

This article was republished as part of a partnership with Cybermoi/s, an event organized by Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr to raise awareness of cybersecurity issues.

“I almost did something stupid!” Sylvianne (name has been changed) still blames herself. A few days ago, this sixty-year-old received a text message telling her that her health insurance card was about to expire. Worried about seeing her green document become unusable, she clicked on the link provided to, she believed, renew it. Without thinking, by her own admission, “because I needed my health insurance card to go to the optician to change my glasses.”

Faced with the “urgency” of the situation, she begins to fill out the form: name, first name, postal address and telephone number on the first page. A second page offers her the choice of a method of sending the document: with La Poste, with reception within 3 or 5 days for 95 cents, or with Chronopost to receive it in 2 days for 1.90 euros. The page to “proceed to payment” is then displayed. It was at this moment that this resident of the south of France realized the scam: “the carte vitale is free”, she said to herself. Even the sending.

She then has the reflex to close the web page, even if she had started to write down her bank card numbers. It was a good decision: since she did not validate, she avoided giving her bank details to a fraudster.

© Maxime Gil/Linternaute

Because in fact, this message received by Sylvianne, as by thousands of other French people in recent days is indeed a fake (see photo). But how can you easily detect it when the mention “AMELI” clearly appears ? The first rule to know is simple: the carte vitale does not have an expiration date. Unlike the bank card, it is valid for life. If updates must be done, your doctor or pharmacist can do them directly.

In addition, social security never sends SMS asking for your credit card number. Also, if there is a link in the SMS, it must start with “ameli.fr/”. If this is not the case, it is a fake site that will scam you. In this case, you should definitely not click, and even less so, fill out and validate any form. It should also be noted that the “news” at the bottom of the page are often not from the right year and that spelling mistakes are left. “Send” for example, in this case, instead of “Sending”.

Anyone who clicks on the link and completes the process is exposing themselves to fraudulent use of their bank account. Since scammers have access to your data, they can then use it to get money from you directly. You must therefore block your card if the form has been completed to the end.

While this type of scam is common and there are many warnings on the subject, prevention must still be done to avoid unpleasant surprises, although they continue to arrive, tirelessly.