"I was seconds away from paying into this scam."
Ranvir Singh has revealed her shock after almost falling for a scam.
The ITV Good Morning Britain presenter received a fraudulent email from somebody pretending to be the TV licensing company and warned:
“Don’t fall for it.”
Ranvir shared a screenshot of an email which began with the subject line:
“Urgent Notice- Renew Your TV Licence, 6/20/23 9:14:34 pm.”
The email read: “Dear [Ranvir’s email address], Keep your TV viewing legal and hassle-free by renewing your license.
“I hope this email finds you well.”
She admitted that the rest of the email looked convincing, however, she soon noticed that something did not feel right.
Ranvir revealed that she clicked on the sender’s name and it revealed a fraudulent email address that had no resemblance to the official TV licensing company.
This is a method that can often allow a person to detect whether an email is genuine or not.
Explaining how she uncovered the scam, Ranvir said she was currently in the process of researching a series of reports on online scammers which helped her to pick up on the signs.
She wrote online: “I almost clicked to pay this just now but I’m currently doing a scams programme for @itvtonight and something didn’t feel right.
“The ‘urgent’ bit felt a bit over the top.
“So I clicked on the sender’s email name to see the email address… and it’s this… I was seconds away from paying into this scam.”
TV licensing says: “Scam emails often tell you that you need to make an urgent payment.
“We only email customers about payments if they have missed one. You can sign in to your account to check.
“They often say you can get a refund or a cheaper licence. We will never do this unless you have contacted us about a refund and we are replying to you.
“TV Licence scam emails may show a fake licence number.”
“Your licence number is on letters we send you, or search your email inbox for emails from ‘[email protected]’ (or ‘[email protected].)
We support the work of the Government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to help stop scammers.
“Send any scam or suspicious emails to [email protected] and they will investigate.
“Take a screenshot of the message and send it to [email protected].”
Meanwhile, Ranvir Singh will explore scams in more detail in a future episode of the current affairs Tonight programme.
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