Billers are being cautioned by the authorities to be on the lookout for a new, plausible TV licencing fraud.
In an attempt to obtain personal information, scammers are posing as TV Licencing and sending emails to gullible victims, especially the elderly.
In less than two weeks, 6,307 reports about these fictitious emails purporting to be from TV Licencing were received by Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting service for fraud and financially motivated cybercrime.
A few letters indicate that a recipient’s TV licence is due to expire, while others assert that there was a problem with their most recent payment.
Email scammers include links in their emails that take victims to websites that appear legitimate but are actually set up to collect personal data.
In an example shared by Action Fraud, a scam email claims the person needs to update their details to stay licensed.
The fraudsters proceed to claim: “We were unable to take a payment for your @Licence number: 3295105, as your bank has declined the @Direct Debit payment request.
“This may have happened because your bank details have changed.
“To make sure you stay licensed, please provide new @Direct Debit details now.
“Once you have done this, you can also update any other details if required.”
Action Fraud said people should contact the organisation directly if they have doubts about a message.
The alert read: “Don’t use the numbers or address in the message – use the details from their official website.
“Your bank (or any other official source) will never ask you to supply personal information via email.”
Reports of suspicious emails should be sent to [email protected], the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS).
It’s important to check emails carefully, as many scams simply say “dear customer” or use the recipient’s email address, and they may have a made-up postcode or licence number.
They said: “Remember, we will never call to ask for:
- Your mother’s maiden name
- Your date of birth
- Your card details.”
A TV Licensing spokesperson said: “We take the protection of our customers extremely seriously and work with groups across the UK to raise awareness of how people can avoid scams.”