Published on:
16 December 2020
Scammers will try any way possible to get a hold of your money, even if it means imitating TV Licensing and claiming that you’re due a refund that doesn’t exist.
Here’s how to spot this scam email and what to do if you’ve been the victim of a scam.
The most common form of this scam is an email claiming that you are due a refund and that you need to enter personal information and bank details in order to claim it.
A link is then provided in the email which, if clicked, takes you to what you think is the TV Licensing website. It is however a fake version of the site set up by scammers. By entering your bank details, you are in fact directly giving scammers the green light to steal your cash.
TV Licensing say that they will never email you saying you are due a refund nor will they ask you to pay for any additional services or to pay for changing your address.
A tell-tale sign is the sender’s address, if it looks odd with random characters and letters then chances are it’s fake. TV Licensing themselves say that they “will almost always use one of the following email addresses”:
Email subject lines from a scam usually try to create a sense of urgency or contain an instruction – both are there to make you click because you want to find out more.
Advice from TV Licensing says any subject line that contains: ‘Action required’, 'Security Alert', 'System Upgrade' or 'There is a secure message waiting for you' should be treated with caution and raise suspicion.
If there are no obvious signs that the email address is fake, no typos or grammatical errors, then it’s always best to check by going direct to TV Licensing website.
You can also search online the email subject line or email address to see if others have reported this as a scam before.
If you’ve been the victim of a scam and have sent any money or entered any bank details, the first thing to do is stop the payment straight away. Get in contact with your bank and stop any Direct Debits if they’ve been set up.
However, if you’ve not entered any personal details then follow these steps to report the email:
There are a few measures you can take to help protect yourself from future scams, so should you receive a scam email in the future you know when alarm bells should start to ring.
Anything that sounds too good to be true usually is. If a company is promising a refund as long as you click on a link to enter your bank details, then think – would a company out of the blue offer me free money?
Scammers rely on people acting in a hurry because their ‘account is going to close’ or 'there’s been unusual activity, act now' – they are all scare tactics to scam you out of your money. Don’t be their next victim.