Fraudsters steal £200k in fake TV licence email scam

MORE than £200,000 has been stolen by fraudsters sending out fake TV Licensing emails to trick people into giving their personal details out.

Action Fraud has issued a warning over “phishing” emails after several reports were brought to the government body’s attention. Phishing is an attempt by fraudsters to obtain sensitive information like bank details, user names and passwords, usually made by email.

Now there has been a new wave of the fraudulent emails, which see criminals calling victims claiming to be bank employees and convincing them to part with their money.

Since last month 200 reports have been made to national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre Action Fraud about the scam, with victims reporting a total loss of £233,455.

Fraudsters have been sending out fake emails telling victims they are owed a refund or have had issues with their payments.

The subject lines in the emails say things such as “correct your licensing information”, “billing information updates” and ‘renew now” in a bid to trick people into clicking on the link within the email.

In the following weeks, victims received phone calls from a fraudster claiming to be from the fraud department of their bank, tricking customers by using their personal information supplied to them through the fake website linked in the email.

Victims are then told their account as been compromised and they need to transfer their money to a new “safe account”.

Director of Action Fraud Pauline Smith said: “Bank staff and police officers will never ask you to move money to a safe account.

“It is also important that you never click on links in emails you were not expecting. “If you believe you have been a victim of fraud, please report it to us.”

A spokesman for TV Licensing said: “We’re continuing to work closely with Action Fraud to raise awareness of the scam emails circulating to the public, posing as genuine TV Licensing communications.”