TV LICENCE SCAM EMAIL BEWARE.

I might be a bit late in posting this - have just read this post - but could someone tell me what the PayPal scam is, please? I have had one in the last couple of days saying I have ‘reached my limit’ and need to ‘renew’ my card/information. Is this real? How can you reach your limit if you are paying by debit card through PayPal? Thanks.

Hammo, definitely a scam. Never ever respond to an email asking you to co firm your details.

Just had a dodgy one from bt,
Never click on a link in the e-mail, I often send them to the phishing dept. But couldn’t be bothered tonight.

Allycat.
We have a few channels that don’t have adverts -BBC was the first and only channel available back in the day. The license dates from then. We now have a few BBC TV channels and a lot of national and regional radio stations

A new one I've got is from Hastings direct saying I've taken car insurance out with them and first payment to come out on a certain date.i haven't taken any and knew this was a scam straight away. Please be aware Hmrc has scam ones too offering a tax rebate and my sister got done on this one.

I was getting so much spam on primary email account, wanting to sell me viagra and saying hello sexy! etc, decided to change password. Email account then disappeared. Probably because of me being thick. Finally got it back. Technology is a curse, I’ve decided.

I've not had TV Licensing one but several from Banks I don't use, also frequent ones from PayPal which I forward to them.

Also had several from HMRC, quite amusing as I used to work for them (I started work in the old Inland Revenue days), these I always forward. HMRC will never contact you by email/phone regarding a refund.

I find mostly these emails go into my spam box in any case. Shizam I get lots of those, viagra, Russian Brides etc

Instead of leaving these messages in my spam box I now block them and have hardly any now

My DD was caught by this and, suddenly realising she had given too much information away, cancelled all transactions on her bank account and credit card.

In the end she and her DF had to close two bank accounts and open new ones. It took nearly a week of pretty intense work to do it.

Be very wary. I never give any information away on the phone whatsoever, even to answer the question, ‘Am I speaking to the homeowner?’ The caller should know the necessary information, otherwise, why are they calling?

A few years ago I had a phone call from a man who said he was from my credit card company, said he thought I had had some fraud on my account and then proceeded to ask for my security details!

I wasn't going to fall for that one, so refused. If I hadn't been in such a rush to go on holiday, I may have checked with the company. We got to the airport, went to duty free and my card had been blocked! When I got home, there was a letter asking me to phone up and it turned out that someone had tried to use my account to put £20 credit to their phone and this was out of character so they phoned me.

I hope the caller has had better training now because he didn't sound genuine to me.

I've had two as well. I didn't even open them and deleted them straight away as I knew my TV licence expires in April. I've also had e-mails to say my there is unusual activity on my Lloyds bank account, as I've never banked with Lloyds I knew that was another scam, yet another one to be wary of.

If someone calls me - like the man from the credit card above -and asks me for security details, I usually say "you called ME - you tell me your security details" At that point I would try to make a purchase with my card and see if it really was blocked, then call the number stated that deals with fraud (ie the number where they sort out blocked cards)

Yes, we've had these. And similar from the 'taxman'.

IMO such scams are a good argument for being fairly hot on spelling and grammar! It enables you to spot a lot of these at once - so much for those people who say these things don't matter any more, nobody cares except nitpicking old pedants.

We have got the T shirt for most of these. The latest was a phone message to tell us that our i/net conn. would be cut off within 24 hrs. unless we pressed such and such a button. We are still on the net. DH once tried to buy a suit from the far east and the next thing he knew was that his bank account was being emptied in a betting shop in Singapore. Lloyds Bank soon nailed that one. The suit was rubbish as well.

I think this is the only one we haven't had! One no one else seems to have mentioned is my Apple ID, I get these all the time but I don't have any Apple devices.

Thank you for putting this out there.

In Canada, we don't have TV licenses, but we do have problems with people calling claiming to be from the revenue agency and claiming that someone owes back taxes. We actually got a call once from such scammers. Fortunately, we immediately contacted the revenue agency and determined that our accounts were in good standing, as we were sure they would be. Often the scammers will request that payment be made in iTunes gift cards or other gift cards. Sadly, it's gotten so bad that many businesses now have signs posted on their gift card racks, stating that no reputable organization will EVER ask for payment in gift cards and that if you've received these requests it's a scam. The one good thing is that you can't usually use self-checkout for gift cards; they must be activated by the cashier. Cashiers are often educated about these scams specifically in order to identify people who are purchasing large quantities of gift cards, so they can warn potential victims about these scams.

If BBC know of this scam couldn't they put out a warning on the local news or the chatty morning programmes they do?

Ready meals some people pay weekly by debit card or pay point and I buy mine monthly by direct debit so no not everyone pays in advance

My sister received an email from BT saying she needed to update her details as they were changing her conditions. She phoned BT who confirmed they had sent no such email so be warned.

My mother regularly gets phone calls from people saying they are from the TPS and for a small monthly fee she could also block overseas calls trying to sell her things. They then say they have all her bank details from a previous conversation and ask for the three numbers on the back of her debit card to confirm her identity.

Mum has Alzheimers and we recently began to use our power of attorney with her bank just to oversee her accounts. We found she had been paying £21.99 each month for over a year to such a company. I stopped the DD immediately and also scratched these numbers off her card to stop her being scammed again to buy things over the phone.

My sister found on Saturday that this worked when she overheard mum on the phone to another scammer with the same scam asking for the numbers, which obviously mum could not find. The person soon hung up when my sister took over the call and berated her for bullying an obviously confused elderly person. My mum really thought they were from her phone company.

The people make me sick, they prey on elderly vulnerable people who are on some kind of scam list, Esther Rantzen did a programme about this just last week.

I've had two texts from Argos telling me they are refunding me over £200, and a link to follow. Well as I haven't bought anything that costs that from Argos I've just deleted it.

Oh yes and an email from EE saying our broadband services are going down and to follow a link. Our broadband and internet were fine.

realised the spelling and English were atrocious

I once read that that is deliberate, as people who don't notice the mistakes may be easier to con.

One trick they use is to phone you by landline, then "confirm" that they are the bank/fraud dept by phoning your mobile so you can see the correct number come up.
This happened to a local lady here who was fleeced out of several thousand pounds.
Luckily her bank refunded some (maybe all, not sure) of it.

Today I had a call from a robot saying "This is BT. Your line is compromised. Press 1 for BT or press 2 for other providers."

I have been having broadband problems for weeks and have had calls from BT robots. None of them asked me to press any buttons, tho.

I ignored this one.