Politics

Axing free TV for over-75s has given crooks licence to rip pensioners off



As if being robbed of our free TV licence wasn’t enough, now the cyber-thieves are moving in.

Beware! Fraudsters are offering pensioners an email form to help set up a direct debit for the £157.50 fee.

It’s an eye-catching number, with smiley pictures including a white-bearded man listening to earphones.

It warns: “You are about to lose your TV licence. Act now before it’s too late.”

The message then pretends to quote “Your TV licence details”, and asks for bank details via email.

It is, of course, a scam, designed to trick old people into giving fraudsters access to their bank account, which they will empty. I can’t think of a more disgusting trick to play on pensioners.

Reader Stan Jones of Nantwich, Cheshire, received one of these emails, and immediately spotted it as a fraud. The “details” did not match his number.

But some elderly people, already upset and confused about losing their free TV licences, may have been conned.

I asked TV Licensing how these scumbags could possibly know that Mr Jones had lost the telly benefit, making him vulnerable to such a fraud.

The authority says it has written by post to all over-75s about the new policy, not via email or text. It insists there is no security breach. “Our records have not been compromised,” said a spokesman.

“We have seen criminals obtaining emails from various sources and fraudulently sending scam emails to the public posing as genuine TV Licensing communications – unfortunately this has included older people.”

It’s a lot more than unfortunate. For those who have been robbed it’s a nightmare, and I still find it hard to believe that hackers are not at work.

Whatever. Just be on your guard against the crooks and report any suspicions to tvl.co.uk/scams.





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