Received questionable text message from .Gov.uk - Is it legit?

SaitenMar

It seems pretty obvious now but unfortunately my relative isn't the most tech savvy. I became suspicious when I read "thank you for supporting the UK Government" and that it was asking for your financial information.

He feels stupid but honestly, I'm not surprised others fall for this. A warning to be smarter. 

NedS

Brie said:

Scam.  Someone on our local social media had one saying that they had to log in immediately or miss out on their pending payment.  The text looked pretty good but the urgency is a bit of a giveaway.  

Don't think the UK gov go in for texts at all, more letter in the post types.

DWP send text message notifications (or email notifications) to UC claimants asking them to log in to their UC account online whenever there is a new journal message to read or ToDo to action. To anyone used to receiving these messages regularly, I can see how they may easily be fooled by such a scam.

Be vigilant, be aware and stay safe online.

TimeLord1

That's the latest Scam text received beware people 

pumpkin60

          I've had 3 of the above texts...I've never had a driving license, never driven, don't know how to!!  Suffice to say I wont be paying 

daveyjp

Emmia said:

Thing is your message wasn't from gov.uk. It was from govuk.icu

Correct, the thread title needs changing.

Emmia

pumpkin60 said:

          I've had 3 of the above texts...I've never had a driving license, never driven, don't know how to!!  Suffice to say I wont be paying 

I've had a couple of similar ones recently, whilst I have a licence, I've not owned (or parked) a car for over a decade - so I'm very unlikely to have a PCN. I've been reporting them as spam and blocking - but it's really a bit tiresome.

M25

I've never had that type of text although I did receive one from the 'Royal Mail' which looked a little bit realistic. I suppose they're all in the same scam bucket. Looking for stupid and/or greedy people.

The grammar and date layout (October 21 instead of 21 October) should be enough for most people to know it should be ignored.

There's a lot of stupid people though and even if 2% respond it's worth the time of the scammers.

I had a scam call yesterday from 07773141849 (I block virtually everything I will now block 0777*) which slipped through from a mobile number saying [in robocall American] it was regarding my 'immigration visa'. Just who would fall for that and how many? 10s of people I guess. Maybe 100s if it's going to several countries.

Don't answer your door to strangers.

Muttleythefrog

M25 said:

I've never had that type of text although I did receive one from the 'Royal Mail' which looked a little bit realistic. I suppose they're all in the same scam bucket. Looking for stupid and/or greedy people.

The grammar and date layout (October 21 instead of 21 October) should be enough for most people to know it should be ignored.

There's a lot of stupid people though and even if 2% respond it's worth the time of the scammers.

I had a scam call yesterday from 07773141849 (I block virtually everything I will now block 0777*) which slipped through from a mobile number saying [in robocall American] it was regarding my 'immigration visa'. Just who would fall for that and how many? 10s of people I guess. Maybe 100s if it's going to several countries.

Don't answer your door to strangers.

It's not always so simple... official sources can look very much like scammers... people can be caught in difficult circumstances (such as pressure of time)... coincidences can compellingly occur (not least due to the volume of scamming). For the most part yes people need to avoid being silly and do some due diligence.. but not everyone has such capacity... and in extreme cases even where people are being scammed and their money taken repeatedly they will listen to nobody including family. 

Let me give a couple examples for thought.
In recent years I've advised migrants regarding family migration visas as a casual amateur with my finger somewhat on the pulse due to going through such with my own partner. On perhaps 3 or 4 occasions I've encountered foreign visa applicants who have reported receiving emails purportedly from The Home Office - on each occasion the emails were in very poor English typical of scammers, the information specific to the recipient was poor and in a couple of cases not correct (typical of what you might expect from a speculative scam), the email demanded urgent payment via a third party entity and did not detail in any way what it was for (surely a scam). In the cases I recall.. the recipients who had an immigration lawyer all were informed to ignore the email as it was a scam. In all those cases I advised the visa applicants to pay without delay as it was not a scam - I had seen this before reported including by someone who had not paid. These were genuine Home Office emails, appalling in quality, where the Home Office is considering an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain and finds that the applicant is not going to meet the criteria and so they default to considering an application for extended leave... as a result that would incur Immigration Health Surcharge fees and it is these requested in the emails which did not specify such or that the immigration application had been changed. Failing to pay the fee would likely lead to having no legal status here.

Just over a year ago if my memory is roughly right... my wife had ordered stuff online under my name to take advantage of some offer. I was duly informed of an impending Evri delivery with approximate time for a batch of the order... I waited patiently for it and bang on cue I looked out of the window and saw our usual Evri driver park outside our block of flats and go to the external entrance door... I moved from the window expecting him to request entry over intercom or otherwise get in and deliver the package and as I did so I got a text purportedly from Evri saying that the delivery had not been possible and to re-arrange. I was mad... there was no reason for him not to deliver... so I raced to my PC to make enquiries and as I did so there was a knock at the door and the Evri delivery! I duly checked the text and noticed it was a scam. I chalked that up as an unfortunate coincidence... but it nearly caught me out... and guess what.... when the second half of her order was due to be delivered... the events repeated.. I again got a scam Evri text as the Evri driver approached our building's door!

These scammers rely on various human failings and also coincidences... for example referring to specific providers that most people won't have or won't have current issue with regarding service... but some will... and if you're expecting BT to call you about your intermittent broadband and someone contacts you about that... well... dare I say it a scammer will tell you they can fix things for you while genuine service providers try to deflect blame. But if an immigration lawyer can't tell the difference between a scam email and a vital one from Home Office..... I think it reasonable to say the issue goes beyond idiocy.

M25

Yes, I agree with what you say of course but how can it be fixed? It can't. It's human nature more and more to skim the facts and read the headlines with everything in life.

If people are lacking common sense or freely decide to make multiple stupid choices we have to let them get on with it.

TimeLord1

My filters just Blocked this new Winter Heating SCAM