Very Plausible Scam

I always get a reminder from DVLA about 3 weeks before the tax expires.

I got that scam email , one thing that alerted me was .....
I have never owned a vehicle ! I never mastered driving

I didn't get any reminder this time AGAA4and I ended up being 12 days overdue in paying it because I hadn't realised it was due. If I'd got that email, it may well have lured me in to clicking on it.

And the fine was £398.80 , seems an odd number ?

Same for me, no reminder, thought I had better check, and found I had been driving illegally for nearly two weeks!

I had better check next time just in case I don't get a reminder like Chewbacca and B9exchange. It isn't something that you think of and could well go over the renewal date.

I just pay mine monthly - it’s £17.50 including a few pence for the admin. That way, there’s no chance to forget and there’s an annual e-mail from DVLA, confirming the on-going payments.

I always get a reminder in the post but mine's easy to remember as it's the same month as the MOT and service.

I get a letter in the post, even though I pay online.

Like Georgesgran, we do ours monthly too.

The extra cost is miniscule, and we find putting things on monthly direct debit makes budgeting easier.

We do ours monthly as well and then there's no chance of forgetting to renew.

I received a variant on this today saying I was due a refund on my car tax. I knew that not to be so and always check the email address of the sender - definitely dodgy. Deleted immediately.

I have had scam emails telling that my TV licence expired this month - these came from several different sources and looked very plausible. Our TV licence is not due at this time of year, but I called the legitimate licence people to check. Strangely enough, had exactly the same scam “reminder” last September! I reported it to a genuine phishing website. The TV licence numbers quoted on the scam emails all differed - and one was approximately 18 digits long!

I got that scam an only just paid it scandalous

The best thing is to look at the email address from where it comes. TV Licence and DVLA usually have 'do not reply' in the email address whereas the scams usually say some gobbbledygook @hotmail. Usually quite easy to distinguish from the real thing.

You can now pay your car tax monthly so it never runs out. I got caught out once and got fined. So it’s another thing I don’t have to try and remember. Just to the gov.uk site

I pay my car tax by direct debit. This way I never need to check exactly when the tax is due. It's very simple to set up. I also get numerous and almost weekly emails telling me that I haven't paid my car tax, my TV licence, my broadband, my mobile phone bill and so on. All these emails are scams and I get quite annoyed with them, but there doesn't seem a way to stop them.

This happened to me last year! It was VERY plausible. Just be very aware.

See the e-mail address, it is not the actual one (a letter or a number will be different). Then forward to the actual entity to alert them. Do not hit reply, because that is what they rely on. Also, the chances are that a car will be impounded, not crushed - that is a scare tactic.

I had an email in August from the DLVA (real) telling me my MOT was due. I'd already had it done in May!

Had a later email advising they'd sent it in error and I could ignore it! The real bodies do sometimes make mistakes.

I was scammed when I tried to renew my driving license. I completed the 'DVLA' form on line and paid £69.99 which it asked for, not realising that it is free for over 70s. I know that was stupid of me. Obviously I didn't receive any license and I contacted my credit card company which has reimbursed me and is still trying to get the money back.
There are so many very plausible scams out there, I feel sick when I think how easily we can lose our money. I wrote to DVLA telling them what happened in the hope they can be watchful of their site.

If I have any doubt whether an email is a scam I click on reply to the email and have a look at the email address, it often has no bearing on where it is supposed to have come from

I got a telephone recorded message yesterday from Derby telling me that I was guilty of tax fraud and if I didn't respond to the recorded message there would be a warrant issued for my arrest. As I am retired and don't pay tax, I ignored it. These people need to be stopped !!!

I had a similar e mail telling me I hadn’t renewed my tv licence and could be sent to prison! It asked me to renew by giving my credit card details. I realised it was a scam but it could be very worrying for some people.