There’s a particularly convincing email scam doing the rounds at the moment and our Trading Standards Officers are asking you to be aware of as it could mean you lose a lot of money.
The email appears to come from TV licensing authorities and use headlines such as “correct your licensing information” or “your TV licence expires today.”
It may ask you to check your payment details including banking details and may also ask for such things as your mother’s maiden name or your date of birth.
The TV Licensing Authority has issued the following advice about how to tell if an email you’ve received is genuine or a potential scam.
They will never:
email you to tell you that you’re entitled to a refund.
ask you to pay additional money for our services, e.g. when you’re buying a licence or changing your details.
- Check the email address
- They will almost always use one of the following email addresses:
donoreply@tvlicensing.co.uk
no-reply@tvlreminders.co.uk
- Occasionally, they partner with other companies to send out emails. These companies include InfoBase-X and Acxiom Limited, who may email you – on behalf of TV Licensing – from Infobase-XConsumer@dm-uk1.com.
Check the email subject line
- Anything along the lines of “Action required”, “Security Alert”, “System Upgrade”, “There is a secure message waiting for you”, and so on, should be treated as suspicious.
Check the links go to the TV Licensing website
- If you are on a desktop computer, hover over the links in the email (but don’t click them) to see their destination and check the web address carefully. If you can’t hover over the links (e.g. because you are on a phone or tablet) or are not sure what to do, just go directly to the TV Licensing website
Check for a change in style and errors in spelling or grammar
- Often, scammers will take the real emails and amend them. Look out for changes in the wording used, especially if it seems too casual or familiar.Are there any spelling mistakes, missing full stops or other grammatical errors?
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