What are the red flags of this scam?

TV Licensing will never email asking you to click a link and enter card details — genuine renewal notifications link only to tvlicensing.co.uk and do not ask for your sort code or CVV • The subject lines vary: 'Your TV licence expires today', 'Payment failed — update your details', 'You are owed a TV Licensing refund' — the refund variant is designed to catch people who would ignore a threat • The link leads to a clone of the TV Licensing website that looks genuine but has an address like 'tvlicence-renew.co.uk' or a redirector URL rather than tvlicensing.co.uk • The fake site requests far more than a normal renewal: full name, date of birth, address, account number, sort code, full card number, and CVV all on one page • Urgency language: 'your licence expired at midnight', 'failure to renew may result in prosecution' — TV Licensing does not threaten prosecution in unsolicited emails

What should I do if this happened to me?

Do not click any link in the email. If you want to check your licence status, go directly to tvlicensing.co.uk by typing it yourself • Forward the phishing email to report@phishing.gov.uk (the NCSC Suspicious Email Reporting Service) then delete it • If you already entered card details on a fake site, freeze your card immediately using your banking app — UK card fraud is usually attempted within 24-72 hours of details being captured — then call the number on the back of your card • If you entered your bank sort code and account number, contact your bank and consider asking them to flag the account for unusual outbound transfers • Report to Report Fraud at https://www.reportfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040.

HIGH government impersonation Last reported: 19 Oct 2026 Share

A TV Licensing email says your licence has expired or you are owed a refund — click here to sort it

Q: Is this a scam?

Yes. This is a documented scam pattern. A phishing email pretends to be from TV Licensing, claiming your licence has expired, your payment failed, or you are owed a refund. A link leads to a cloned TV Licensing site that harvests your name, date of birth, card number, sort code, and CVV. Action Fraud received 6,307 reports in two weeks in August 2026.

A phishing email pretends to be from TV Licensing, claiming your licence has expired, your payment failed, or you are owed a refund. A link leads to a cloned TV Licensing site that harvests your name, date of birth, card number, sort code, and CVV. Action Fraud received 6,307 reports in two weeks in August 2026.

Also known as: fake TV Licence email UK, TV Licensing phishing email, TVL payment failed scam, television licence refund scam

Already happened to you? Do this in the next few minutes

1 Call your bank or card's fraud line right now. Use the number on the back of your card — not any number from the message or caller. Ask them to stop or reverse the payment and freeze the account.
2 If you paid by gift card, wire, or an app (Zelle, Venmo, Cash App): contact that company immediately and report it as fraud. Acting fast sometimes recovers the money.
3 Report to the FBI at ic3.gov and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The sooner, the better.

What to do right now

1 Do not click any link in the email. If you want to check your licence status, go directly to tvlicensing.co.uk by typing it yourself
2 Forward the phishing email to [email protected] (the NCSC Suspicious Email Reporting Service) then delete it
3 If you already entered card details on a fake site, freeze your card immediately using your banking app — UK card fraud is usually attempted within 24-72 hours of details being captured — then call the number on the back of your card
4 If you entered your bank sort code and account number, contact your bank and consider asking them to flag the account for unusual outbound transfers
5 Report to Report Fraud at https://www.reportfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040.

Red flags

⚠ TV Licensing will never email asking you to click a link and enter card details — genuine renewal notifications link only to tvlicensing.co.uk and do not ask for your sort code or CVV
⚠ The subject lines vary: 'Your TV licence expires today', 'Payment failed — update your details', 'You are owed a TV Licensing refund' — the refund variant is designed to catch people who would ignore a threat
⚠ The link leads to a clone of the TV Licensing website that looks genuine but has an address like 'tvlicence-renew.co.uk' or a redirector URL rather than tvlicensing.co.uk
⚠ The fake site requests far more than a normal renewal: full name, date of birth, address, account number, sort code, full card number, and CVV all on one page
⚠ Urgency language: 'your licence expired at midnight', 'failure to renew may result in prosecution' — TV Licensing does not threaten prosecution in unsolicited emails

Already happened to you? Do this in the next few minutes

What to do right now

Red flags

Sources