A police and crime commissioner who advised residents not to fall for a fake TV licence scam has revealed his embarrassment at himself being conned by the fake TV licensing email.
Norfolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner Lorne Green
The former diplomat was forced to cancel his credit card following the blunder.
He said that the unfortunate incident left him feeling “a little embarrassed”.
He told The Telegraph:
“I was tired after a long day and as I scanned through my emails I came across a very convincing message saying that I needed to re-register my TV licence and without really thinking I put in my credit card details.
“After a couple of minutes I realised that surely, if that were the case, I would have received a letter so I cancelled the transaction.
“I have to say it was very convincing and it just goes to show just how vigilant you have to be.”
Mr Green fell victim to the scam just weeks after Norfolk Trading Standards warned people about the fake TV licencing emails.
Earlier this month a couple from Hampshire told how they lost almost £10,000 after falling victim to the scam.
Action Fraud has said £13.4m was stolen from victims in Norfolk alone in frauds between October 2017 and September 2018.
A member of our team here at Emergency Services News has also received the hoax email, but a quick check of the
The fake email that was received by one of our team didn’t even come from a domain name that looked anything like the ‘official’ TV licensing body:
The scammers will either try and convince you that you are due a refund(!?) or that your details need to be ‘updated’ and/or renewed.
A statement on the Action Fraud website said:
‘Fraudsters have been issuing fake TV Licence refund emails in a bid to steal victim bank account details with a number of potential victims reporting the scam email to Action Fraud this morning
‘The scam email claims to offer a refund for over-payments of TV Licence fees, but states the victim’s bank details need to be updated before the refund can be issued.
‘The email then links to a website designed to look like TV Licensing’s own website with a form for victims to enter their details.
‘In reality, the website has been set up to look authentic but the form steals victim’s bank details, giving the fraudsters the chance to steal the victim’s savings‘.
Preventing TV Licence phishing fraud
TV Licensing will not contact you by email concerning refunds.
If you’ve received an email claiming to be from TV Licensing, don’t open any attachments or click links in the email’s text.
To report a fraud and receive a police crime reference number, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use our online fraud reporting tool.
Sign up for free to Action Fraud Alert to receive direct, verified, accurate information about scams and fraud in your area by email, recorded voice and text message.
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