Short answer: a text message from the Établissement français du sang (EFS), a medical biology laboratory or an imaging centre is almost always an appointment reminder or an invitation to donate, sent from a 3xxxx/2xxxx short code or an alphanumeric sender ID (such as "EFS" or "LABO"). It never asks for your bank card, your full social security number or any login credentials. The moment a link demands a payment or an "identity confirmation", it's a scam: don't click, forward the message to 33700.
Updated 22 October 2026.
The healthcare journey has become one of the biggest sources of automated text messages in France. A blood test, an X-ray, a vaccination, a blood donation: each of these triggers at least one message — confirmation, reminder the day before, notification that results are available, invitation to come back. Eventually you only skim them.
That's exactly what scammers are counting on. Not by inventing some far-fetched scenario, but by mimicking the most mundane message of the lot: "Your appointment tomorrow at 9:15 is confirmed. Details: [link]". And since plenty of people genuinely do have an appointment that week, the trap works.
Why do you get text messages after a blood donation or a test?
Because each of these organisations needs to reach you quickly, and SMS is the only channel people read within the minute.
Three distinct logics overlap:
- The EFS uses SMS to remind you of a donation appointment, to warn you that a mobile collection has been cancelled, and to contact eligible donors again when stocks of a blood group run low. The organisation communicates regularly about its needs; these calls for donations are public and can be verified at dondesang.efs.sante.fr.
- Medical biology laboratories send an appointment confirmation, then a notification once results have been uploaded to their secure portal or to Mon espace santé.
- Imaging centres, practices and appointment-booking platforms (medical scheduling software, typically) send a reminder the day before or that morning, to limit wasted slots.
On top of that come messages from the health insurance system and public health prevention campaigns. Official screening or vaccination campaigns go through the Assurance Maladie, whose contact practices are described on ameli.fr.
The result: your mobile number is stored in several different systems that don't talk to each other. So you can receive three text messages for a single procedure, from three different senders — which completely scrambles your usual benchmark of "I don't recognise this number".
Which number does a genuine health text message come from?
A legitimate message arrives from a five-digit short code or an alphanumeric sender ID, never from a personal 06/07 number asking you to pay.
| Sender type | What it looks like | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Alphanumeric sender ID | EFS, LABO, RDV-SANTE, the practice's name | Professional bulk messaging (A2P). Replying is impossible in most cases. |
| 3xxxx short code | 36xxx, 38xxx | Service number allocated via the mobile operators. Always free to receive. |
| 2xxxx short code | 2xxxx | Same principle, often used for notifications and campaigns with a STOP option. |
| 09 or local landline number | 01 to 05, 09 | May genuinely be the practice's or lab's number: verifiable on their website or your prescription. |
| Unknown 06/07 mobile | 06 xx xx xx xx | Possible for a small practice… but it's also the number-one hallmark of smishing. |
To understand in detail what each range means, our guide on how to decode a short code or an alphanumeric sender ID breaks down the number families and their uses. Five-digit numbers starting with 6 follow a logic of their own: they belong to the operator-customer relationship, not to healthcare.
One important point: receiving a text message never costs anything in France, whoever the sender is. A message claiming that "you will be charged for receiving this message" is false by definition.
What does a genuine reminder text look like?
A real reminder is light on sensitive information and rich in practical details.
The markers of an authentic message:
- It refers to something you actually initiated: you booked the appointment, you signed up for a collection session, you had a sample taken two days ago.
- It gives the date, time and place, sometimes the exact address of the centre.
- It contains no medical results: a lab tells you results are available, it doesn't write them out in a text message.
- It never asks for payment. Blood donation is free and voluntary; a prescribed test is paid for at the desk or via your carte Vitale, not through an SMS link.
- Its link, if there is one, points to a consistent domain: the laboratory's website,
efs.sante.fr,monespacesante.fr,ameli.fr. - It often offers a way out: "STOP to 3xxxx" for non-essential reminders, or a phone number to cancel.
Reminders from a practice usually mention the name of the practitioner or the centre, not an anonymous formula along the lines of "your medical appointment". When you receive a lot of messages, writing appointments down in a paper desk diary — or simply a spiral-bound notebook — remains the most reliable way to cross-check a dubious text: if the time announced matches nothing you've written down, the doubt is settled.
How do you spot a fake "results" or "appointment" text?
A fake message always adds an urgent action that the real one doesn't have.
The five signatures of health-themed smishing:
- Artificial urgency: "within 24 hours", "your file will be closed", "final reminder before cancellation".
- The micro-payment: €0.99, €1.90, €2.99 in "processing fees", "fees for sending results", "card delivery charges". An amount small enough not to raise alarm, whose sole purpose is to capture your bank card number. The mechanism is identical to that of fake customs fee text messages.
- The request for credentials: full social security number, France Connect ID, Mon espace santé password, code received by SMS.
- The link that looks like nothing: a URL shortener, a
.top,.icuor.sbsdomain, or a plausible name that's misspelled (labo-resultats-fr.com). - Total vagueness: no practitioner's name, no location, no file reference — because the scammer is sending the same message to tens of thousands of numbers.
Simple rule: a healthcare organisation tells you where to go. A scammer tells you what to click.
A fake text can also play the opposite, reassuring card: "Thank you for your donation, your donor card is ready, please confirm your address". The request for a postal address seems harmless — it serves to flesh out a profile that will be resold and then reused in a more targeted scam. It's the same mechanism as the one described in our article on delivery text messages that already know your name and address.
What should you do when doubt remains?
Don't make the call from inside the text message: step out of it and verify through a channel you control.
The procedure, in order:
- Don't click any link and don't call back the number given in the message.
- Find the real number: on your prescription, on the paper appointment letter, on a previous report, or by searching directly for the name of the laboratory or the EFS centre.
- Call that number and simply ask: "Did you send me a text message today?"
- Check your results in the right place: the laboratory portal you already use, or Mon espace santé via
monespacesante.frtyped by hand into your browser. - If the message is fraudulent, forward it to 33700, the national reporting scheme for unwanted text messages and calls, described on 33700.fr. The service replies asking for the sender's number: send it back, again to 33700. We've explained in detail what actually happens to a report.
- Block the sender in your messaging app, then delete the message.
If you did click and entered banking details, the order of priorities changes: contact your bank to block the card, then report. Remedies and deadlines are detailed in our guide on the 72 hours after a booby-trapped text message.
How can you cut down on these texts without missing a genuine reminder?
By separating what is useful (an appointment reminder) from what is promotional (follow-ups, satisfaction surveys, generic invitations).
A few concrete levers:
- Reply STOP to non-essential campaigns. The "STOP to 3xxxx" mention is mandatory for SMS marketing; the framework is set out by the CNIL on cnil.fr and detailed in our article on the rules for SMS marketing in France. Careful: STOP should never be sent to an obviously fraudulent sender, as it confirms your number is active.
- Choose the channel when booking. Many laboratories and platforms offer "reminder by SMS" or "reminder by email": switch anything non-urgent to email.
- Keep a dedicated number for services. Giving your main number to every medical, sports or commercial form ends up spreading it widely; our article on a second number reserved for everything that isn't your close circle explains the method.
- Turn on your messaging app's spam filter. Google Messages and the iOS Messages app both offer automatic sorting of unknown senders; step-by-step settings are in our guide to iOS and Android settings.
- Save the good senders in your contacts. A short code saved as "Town-centre Lab" is no longer a stranger: next time, there's no doubt to resolve. For people who keep records of everything, a document wallet folder for medical paperwork keeps appointment letters and reports, with the genuine numbers, within easy reach.
If your genuine reminders stop arriving, the problem usually lies elsewhere: an over-aggressive filter, a full message inbox, a number mistyped by the reception desk. Our diagnostic on text messages that don't arrive or arrive late covers the most common causes.
The special case of blood donation
Requests linked to blood donation deserve their own vigilance, because they are emotional and legitimately urgent.
A genuine EFS message:
- invites you to come and donate at an identified centre or collection session, with an address and time slots;
- reminds you that donating is free, voluntary and anonymous;
- never asks for money, never for a financial donation via a link, never for "donor registration fees";
- points you to the official EFS website or its appointment-booking app.
A fake message, on the other hand, almost always slides towards one of three requests: a cash donation (playing on the confusion between donating blood and donating money), an identity confirmation with an attachment or a form, or a "donor compensation payment" to claim — which doesn't exist. The same lever is used by fake fundraising pages and bogus appeals for donations.
To organise your donation appointments and medical visits, an A5 zipped document pouch is enough to keep your donor card, prescriptions and real contact details together — which saves you from hunting for a number in a dubious text message.
And before a donation or a blood test, the recommendations come down to very little: be well hydrated and don't come on an empty stomach when you haven't been asked to. A reusable insulated water bottle tucked into your bag is more useful than an SMS reminder.
FAQ
Can a text message from the EFS ask me for money?
No. Blood donation in France is free, voluntary and anonymous: no message from the Établissement français du sang will ever ask you to pay a fee or to make a financial donation through an SMS link. Any such message is fraudulent.
Can my laboratory send me my results by text message?
Not the content, no. A laboratory tells you your results are available on its secure portal or in Mon espace santé, but it never spells out a test result in a text message. A message announcing a "worrying" result along with a link is a scam.
Can a genuine medical appointment reminder come from an 06 number?
It's possible for a small practice sending its reminders from a mobile line, but it's rare and worth checking. If in doubt, call the number shown on your prescription or appointment letter, not the one in the text message.
Should you reply STOP to an unwanted health text message?
Yes, if it comes from an identified, legitimate sender that is contacting you too often (campaigns, surveys, invitations). No, if the message is obviously fraudulent: in that case, forward it to 33700 and block the sender without replying.
How can I check a short code that sent me a health text message?
Compare it with the messages you've already received from the same organisation, look it up on the laboratory's or centre's official website, and cross-check it against the information on your appointment letter. Our page on SMS scams and the one devoted to reporting to 33700 bring together the reflexes to adopt.
