A WARNING has gone out to anyone with a TV licence in York or North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire Police say a fake TV Licensing email scam is doing the rounds and they are asking people to be on their guard.

Andy Hugill, a digital PCSO for North Yorkshire Police, said: "The advices is to forward scam emails to the National Cyber Security Centre on report@phishing.gov.uk.

"Genuine TV Licensing emails are sent from donotreply@tvlicensing.co.uk or donotreply@spp.tvlicensing.co.uk "If you have provided TV Licensing with your postcode details, their emails will include part of your postcode and/or the name on the licence.

"If you’ve given TV Licensing your name, then they’ll always address you using your last name and title. The scammers won’t normally have that information about you. So, watch out for emails that only address you as “Dear client” or “Dear customer” – or just use your email address (or part of it).

"Because scammers can’t use genuine TV Licensing web addresses or email addresses, they’ll try to use slightly different spellings – look out for things like hyphens and full stops in odd places.

"Be suspicious too if there are mistakes in the email with capital letters or other grammatical errors, like missing full stops – this could be a scam.

"Also be wary of emails promising money/refunds. For example, phrases such as, “click below to access your refund”, followed by a request to provide your credit card or bank details (TV Licensing would never process a refund in this way).

"Always check links in an email before clicking or tapping them. If you're on a computer, hover over the link, but don't click it. This will reveal the name of the web address that you are being sent to. If you're on a smartphone or tablet, press and hold on the link, don't release while you are on the link. This will reveal the name of the web address that you are being sent to."