Scam Alert: TV Licence Coronavirus Refund Message

Readers are advised to be aware of a new variant TV licence scam currently doing the rounds.

On this occasion unsuspecting victims are being targeted by text messages falsely claiming that they are entitled to a refund of the £157.50 TV licence fee due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Anyone who clicks the link is directed to an unscrupulous third-party site that harvests their personal information for criminal purposes.

A previous TV licence scam, shown in the image above, offered 6-months of free validity due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Remember that TV Licensing is never in the business of offering freebies or refunds out of the blue. On the contrary, it often takes money to which it has no entitlement and always makes the refund process as difficult and time consuming as possible.

A few important reminders, when it comes to how TV Licensing does business:

• TV licences only ever expire on the last day of the month. If you receive an email/text saying anything different, it is definitely a scam.
• TV Licensing, despite its many flaws, usually produces emails/texts with the correct spelling and grammar. If you receive anything riddled with spelling mistakes or written in broken English, it is definitely a scam.
• TV Licensing may send emails/texts inviting customers to visit its official website. Do not click links that appear to direct you to the TV Licensing website. It is always safer to type the URL of the official TV Licensing website into your browser address bar and visit that way.
• TV Licensing, in common with pretty much every other business in the UK, has scaled right back on its operations at the moment. That being the case alarm bells should be ringing, even more than usual, if you receive a telephone call or visit purportedly made by TV Licensing.
• TV Licensing recently resumed visits to unlicensed properties, but it is not currently allowing goons to seek entry to those properties. TV Licensing goon visits are pretty rare at the best of times, but even more so at the moment. In the unlikely event that someone purporting to be from TV Licensing does visit your property our advice, as always, is to say nothing and close the door on them. They have no automatic rights of entry, as discussed at length in our earlier article.

Of course scams are far more wide ranging than those associated with TV Licensing. We'd also like to remind readers of the following general points:

• A genuine telephone caller will always speak first, introduce them self and say the name of whoever they want to speak to. Invariably the person receiving the call will know something about the matter already. Be very cautious if you receive a call out of the blue, or one where the caller does not know the name of the person they want to speak to. Do not provide any sensitive personal information over the telephone unless you are quite sure who you are talking to. If you are in any doubt at all about who you are talking to, simply make your apologies and say you will call them back later.
• Similarly a genuine telephone caller will be specific in how they introduce them self - they would never say "Hello Sir, I am calling from your bank"; they would say "Hello Mr [Name], this is [Name], I am calling from Santander" or whatever. If they mention the name of an organisation that you have no dealings with, you know it is a scam straight away. A particularly nasty telephone scam doing the rounds at the moment is the following: A person receives an automated telephone call that starts "This is your internet provider. We have detected that you have been viewing illegal material..." the call then goes on to say that the internet will be disconnected and authorities informed if no payment is received. This is an absolute scam, but most people will be terrified into compliance when they hear the Jimmy Savilesque phrase "illegal material". If you get such a call hang up immediately. If an internet provider really did think a customer had been viewing illegal material, it would simply report the matter to the police.
• In the current lockdown period there should be no-one calling at your door plying for business. If anyone calls at the door claiming to be the police/water company/gas board/whatever be sure to scrutinise their identification carefully as they are kept waiting outside. A genuine caller will not mind waiting a few minutes for you to verify their identity, if necessary by calling the organisation they claim to be from. If you do make a verification call, it is always safer to use a number from the organisation's official website or correspondence - don't accept a number verbally from the cold caller in question.
• A lot of scams try to pressurise people into acting hastily and without considering the consequences. No genuine company or organisation would ever demand that you make a snap decision there and then. They would always be happy for you to take a moment, consult with a trusted friend or relative, and get back to them with a decision later on.

Stay safe folks and look after your health and that of your loved ones.

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