People across Gedling borough are still being targeted by a Census scam despite the deadline for submissions being back in March.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) continues to receive evidence of a scam using Census deadlines as a means to steal financial details.
The text messages, which have been seen in Gedling borough, claim to be from official sources, allege that the recipient placed invalid information, missed a question in their Census return, or that the Census has not been returned before the deadline.
They then also claim that if the correct information is not applied, the recipient will be fined a specific amount ranging from £200 to £1,000.
The messages end with a link to a bogus Census website that requests personal details, which puts the recipient’s finances at risk.
CTSI lead officer, Katherine Hart, said: “Unscrupulous fraudsters continue to target the public through text messages claiming to be from the UK Government and its agencies. Many similar scam texts are sent to the public, but this scam concerns me because the Census only comes around every ten years.
“Compared to regular activities such as banking or council tax payments, the public’s unfamiliarity with it could make the Census-themed scam more dangerous than others.
“Never tap on the links these texts contain and forward any scam texts to 7726, a free reporting service run by Ofcom. The public should forward these texts to the authorities as this allows us to build a full picture of the scale of this problem.”
To report scams, contact Action Fraud.
For consumer advice, please call the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline on 0808 223 1133
The public is encouraged to join Friends Against Scams. This initiative aims to protect and prevent people from becoming scam victims by empowering them to stand against scams.
