# Detect tampered and deepfake Medicare Card (Australia) > The Australian Medicare card is the health-insurance card issued by Services Australia, usually green, and it carries no photo, so it is a supporting document rather than primary identification. Its ten-digit number ends in a check digit and prints an individual reference number beside each name, which gives forged cards several arithmetic and format tests to fail. **Canonical URL:** https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/australia_medicare_card **API document class:** `australia_medicare_card` **Last updated:** 2026-10-04 --- ## What a genuine Medicare card contains The number prints as four digits, five digits, and one digit: the first digit is 2 to 6, digits two to eight are an identifier, digit nine is a check digit, and digit ten is the issue number. Beside each name is an individual reference number from 1 to 9, up to five names appear per card, and green cards print an expiry as month and year. Interim cards are light blue and visitor cards under reciprocal agreements are light yellow, and both show a full date rather than month and year. A digital version appears in the myGov app, larger families receive extra cards with the same number, and green cards are valid five years. The card is not a health fund card or a concession card. ## How Medicare card forgeries are made ### Check-digit recomputation The ninth digit is computed from the first eight with a weighted sum taken mod 10. A number that fails the computation was typed rather than issued. ### First-digit range Valid numbers begin with a digit from 2 to 6. A first digit outside that range contradicts the issuing format. ### Expiry format and term Green cards print an expiry as month and year and are valid five years. A day-specific date on a green card, or a term well beyond five years, breaks the pattern. ### IRN and name coherence Each name carries an individual reference number in the range 1 to 9, with up to five names per card. A missing or out-of-range reference number is an inconsistency. ### Photo and text patching Edited names and numbers leave resolution steps and font passes that localise the edited region, and a photo on a card that carries none is itself out of pattern. ## What TamperCheck checks on a Medicare card TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks across three layers and returns a risk score from 0 to 100 with plain-English findings tied to specific regions of the document. These three carry the most weight on this document class. ### Portrait substitution and face-swap analysis The document is isolated from whatever it was photographed on, then the portrait region is assessed against the card surface around it. A pasted or generated face rarely matches the substrate it was placed onto. ### Date and validity consistency Issue, expiry, and period dates are checked against one another and against the file's own creation metadata, which catches backdating and validity extension. ### Reference and document number checks Document, account, and reference numbers are checked for issuer format conformance and against every other place the same value appears on the page. ### And many more checks The three above are the layers that carry the most weight on a Medicare card. Every upload runs the full suite of 200+ checks regardless of document class, spanning file structure and metadata, pixel-level forensics, font and text rendering, optical and print characteristics, provenance signals, AI-generation signatures, and many more checks. ## Who verifies a Medicare card, and why Australian lenders, health providers, and onboarding teams. In each case the document is being used to unlock money, access, or a legal status, which is exactly what makes it worth forging. ## How to verify a Medicare card in 4 steps 1. **Photograph every face.** Capture the whole card flat at full resolution, so the number, each reference number, and the expiry survive close analysis. 2. **Validate the number.** Check the first digit is 2 to 6 and apply the weighted check-digit computation to the first eight digits. 3. **Check the expiry and names.** Confirm the expiry format fits the card colour and term, and that each name has a reference number from 1 to 9. 4. **Run a forensic check on the file.** The number carries the structural story, and the print carries the edit history. TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks including check-digit validation and patch detection, returning a risk score from 0 to 100 with findings tied to specific regions of the image. ## Frequently asked questions ### How is the Medicare card check digit calculated? The first eight digits are multiplied by the weights 1, 3, 7, 9, 1, 3, 7, 9, and the sum taken mod 10 gives the ninth digit. A number that fails this was typed rather than issued. ### Is a Medicare card a photo ID? No. It carries no photo and is not primary identification, so a card presented with a photo as if it were photo ID is a red flag, and it is best treated as a supporting document. ### Why does my Medicare card show only a month and year for expiry? Green cards print the expiry as month and year and are valid five years. Interim blue and visitor yellow cards show a full date, so a day-specific date on a green card is a flag. ### How does TamperCheck verify a Medicare card? TamperCheck validates the number structure and check digit, tests the expiry format against the card type, checks the reference numbers, and inspects the name and number regions for patching. Uploads run through a single REST endpoint, are processed ephemerally and not stored, and findings tie to specific regions. ## Related document types - TamperCheck Forensic Report: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/forensic_analysis_report - Unknown: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/unknown --- Try TamperCheck now: https://tampercheck.ai/dashboard · Docs: https://tampercheck.ai/docs · Pricing: https://tampercheck.ai/pricing