Watch out for this end-of-year carte Vitale scam in France

A new scam focusing on cartes Vitale has been uncovered in France. A false email is sent in order to steal personal information from victims. 

The emails purport to be from Assurance maladie and claim that the recipient must renew their carte Vitale as soon as possible. 

A link in the email then leads the victim to a website that closely resembles the Assurance maladie website - which is named ameli - but the site is in fact a fake. 

If details are entered by a recipient of the email the scammer has access to all their personal information. This can then be used for future scams by stealing their identity. In particular, scammers want to obtain social security numbers and bank details. 

The scam uses the urgency of the situation to confuse their victim. It also uses the fact that residents can digitalise their carte Vitale from next year, meaning the physical card will no longer be required. The carte Vitale is the French state healthcare card. 

Read more: Carte Vitale: Plans for digital version to be integrated with French ID app

Read more: Healthcare: What's new in France in 2025

How to avoid the scam

The first thing to do when receiving an email that seems to be urgent is to check the sender, although they can sometimes disguise themselves efficiently. 

Rather than using the link sent in the email, go directly to the ameli website by looking it up in your search engine. 

If necessary and you can, try and get someone who speaks French fluently to read over the email for you, so that they can check for any mistakes or inconsistencies in the text that alert to the fact it is a fake. 

Finally, be aware that Assurance maladie will never ask for you to provide personal details by email. 

These scams are more common than you might think, so remember to remain vigilant when dealing with this type of email. 

Read more: Moving to France: how does a retiree apply for a health card?