Text scam warning over fake council tax messages

The warning comes from South Tyneside Council which has received reports that a number of residents have received text messages purporting to be from GOV.UK indicating that they are due a Council Tax refund.

In order to process the refund they are asked to follow a link contained in the message which, when opened, takes the resident to a website which has the same look-and-feel as the GOV.UK website, and which asks for their banking details.

Both the text messages and website are fraudulent, and users who enter their details are at great risk of losing money if they enter their details.

This practice is known as a “phishing” scam.

More information on this type of scam can be found on Northumbria Police’s Fraud and Scam Awareness pages.

A spokeman for South Tyneside Council said: “We are warning residents of this on our website and social media, and we have also taken advice from the police who have said that any individual residents who receive this text should report this directly to their local police.”