UK residents should be cautious of text messages claiming to come from the UK Government asking them to apply for winter living expenses.
The text messages like the one below ask them to click a link to apply for living expense subsidies from the government.
<blockquote>
UK government living expenses subsidy in 2023-2024:
We will begin disbursing living expenses to help you get through the winter.
If you receive information proving that you are eligible to apply, please update your information in the link as soon as possible to claim it.
We will close the application deadline on October 11, 2024. Please apply as soon as possible. If you fail to receive it after the time, we will reallocate the funds to other citizens in need.
LINK REMOVED
Thank you for your support to the UK Government.
</blockquote>
These text messages are scams aimed at luring recipients to spoof websites designed to look like the UK Government website. The website attempts to trick visitors into entering personal information about themselves, including banking information. However the website is operated by cyber-crooks, not the government, and any information entered into it is sent straight to them.
This could result in crooks obtaining enough information about a victim to commit identity theft and even access their online bank accounts.
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This is called a phishing scam, whereby crooks message a potential victim pretending to be from a trusted entity, and send bait (the link) to a number of would-be victims to see how many click the link and enter their information.
UK readers should know that if they are entitled for winter living payments, they do not need to click a link in an unsolicited message to apply, since they are automatically enrolled. Any text or email asking recipients to click a link to apply for such payments will be a scam. For more information, you can check the real government website (gov.uk) here.
If you do click the link, you can also verify it’s a scam by checking the web URL (web address) at the top, since spoof websites won’t belong to the GOV.uk domain. (For example, the message that landed in our inbox directed users to the domain http://gov.fineukqt.top/, though this will differ between versions of the scam).
If you do receive such a scam text, report it to the UK government by forwarding it to 7726 (free of charge).
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