This is a phishing email using your TV licence as the bait. Almost every home has a TV licence and they are a legal requirement so people pay attention to these emails.
The title is usually something like “Correct your TV licensing information” or “Your TV licence expires today” and the messages do look official.
There is assorted text to make you feel it is vital to click the link in order to correct any mistakes in the information or to renew your TV license but the link is to a phishing website.
It may look like the real thing but once you click, you’re transferred to a fake website which asks for your details and payment card information including that secret number on the back of the card.
With that information, the criminals will try to empty your bank account or run up your credit card debt to tis limit.
If you provide extra information such as a date of birth then they may try identity theft and take out loans in your name and access other accounts of yours.
Action Fraud received over 5,000 complaints about this scam in just 3 months and most people don’t bother to report such scam attempts.
The TV licensing authority will never send out emails asking for payment details etc. so any such emails are always fake.
If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.
