Southend consumer champion Dominic Littlewood sends warning as people targeted by warm home discount scam
Dominic Littlewood, from Southend-on-Sea, says scammers are trying to get people's details
Southend consumer champion Dominic Littlewood has warned people about a warm home discount scam.
He has urged people to be careful when receiving messages and emails, and has shared some advice on how to determine whether something could be a scam.
The government's Warm Home Discount scheme will be taking effect in November, offering to help low-income households.
The scheme will provide people with £150 to help cover winter energy bills.
Dominic said:
"Fraudsters will try and contact you by the obvious means, which will be a phone call, a text message or an email. And you need to be cautious of all of these.
"You don't want anything coming through by any means that you need to accept or you click on, because that can install malware or virus onto your PC or your phone. So be very, very cautious of that.
"This particular scam that's going around at the moment is called the Warm Home Discount. And it's quite relevant because it runs from October through to March.
"So the scammers are ringing people up. They're telling them they need to register for it. And of course, if people are falling for this, they're then handing over bank details, their details, name, address, et cetera.
"That's just what the scammers want. And you mustn't do that.
"A lot of people who are entitled to this and know it's coming are now starting to get targeted by people saying that you need to register to get the information. Well, that's not actually correct.
"With the Warm Home Discount, if you're entitled to it and you know you're going to get it, it will come in various different ways.
"If you've got a smart meter, a prepayment smart meter, the credit will automatically be applied to your meter. You don't need to lift a finger. If you've got a regular smart meter, then that credit will go to your energy provider and it will show as a credit on your account. If you've got an old fashioned prepayment meter, then it will come through as a voucher in the post and then you obviously go and add that credit to your meter.
"What's happening is these scammers are contacting people and saying, obviously this scheme is now running. You need to register, we need to get your bank details or whatever. And people are falling victim to this because it's topical, it's current, and you need to be on guard."
He said that the discount may be received "quite often" by elderly or vulnerable people.
Dominic also said that there is no hurry in regards to the payment:
"If people are telling you you need to sign up to something or you're going to miss out, there's a very, very big red warning flag there to everybody. Any email that tries to guide you towards a link, treat that with caution.
"People need to be very, very careful. The fact that these are evolving, they're getting very, very clever.
"If you have been scammed, what you need to do is you need to act quickly. Contact your bank. Tell them you think you've been scammed. They'll put a flag on your account. They'll monitor any payments coming out."