Connect direct to state sites to avoid the fakes
Faced with an increase in the number of false – but legal – websites charging high fees for free state services, the government has launched a way for residents to click through from one official site to others via a button called FranceConnect.
The button links three main sites, the official tax site impots.gouv.fr, health services site ameli.fr, and postal service www.idn.laposte.fr with a one-click way to access other public services online and thus avoid the official-looking fakes.
Anyone searching online to change address on a carte grise car registration document will be shown sites charging €89 for the free service or €39 for a free extrait de casier judiciaire (which people need for a citizenship application) as government sites are not ranked so highly by search engines.
Now, by logging in to the tax, health or postal sites, users can click FranceConnect to go directly and without signing-in again to 90 government sites.
Official sites can also be safely accessed via the gateway site service-public.fr that has valuable up-to-date information on state services. It covers areas from boating and hunting licences to housing benefits and consumer protection to registering a birth or a death.
