Warning: Census 2021 scams are still going strong

Me and 2 other members of my family received messages like this, thanks to your warning — just in time — no action was taken to reply or contact by one of us.
Why can’t govt. or fraud organisations not act.?
Or even , make a big thing on TV news and the papers?

Not everybody who uses a computor / smartphone is as ‘TECH SAVEY’ as a lot of us. GOOD ON YOU WHICH for publicising this.

Why don’t you publish the alert number as S-P-A-M instead of the far less memorable 7726 ? It’s why that number was chosen.

I had email re census,I had filled the form but thought they hadn’t received it.Filled in details and when i saw they wanted bank details realised it was a scam,it’s designed to worry you saying you can get fined £1,000.

I got the cenus email and immediately blocked the number and deleted it,it came in again under a different number which i again blocked . Thank you for your warning,not everyone is computer savey.

Most of the criminals that do this sort of things [edited] have been thrown out of universities for being late in a morning or causing arguments and to temperamental to have a job. They have been thrown out of universities for selling drugs or something on the university or college ground’s

[Moderator: we’ve edited this comment to remove a remark which may target a minority group. We may edit or remove comments which may cause offense or target particular groups for malevolent purposes. For more information, see the Community guidelines]

I am a club Treasurer, responsible for paying a 4 figure sum as an annual premium to a broker. Having agreed the cover required, notified of the amount and paid it earlier this year.
Recently, I received an email apparently from the broker saying, “on reviewing our files we found that you have not received a renewal
letter.” Oh really! Why bother over 2 months later? There was an attachment which of course I didn’t click. Have reported it to the national scam investigators.

I had recently received an email to say My television license had not been paid and if not paid immediately the police would be on their way with debt collectors. I am a pensioner but not entirely stupid as the Tv license is in my husbands name and he had received notification that it was paid and in place. I often get either phone calls or texts and told one person on the phone to get a real job and stop scanning innocent people. To me these are the lowest of the low and how society has changed. Many years ago thieves would never steal from their own back yard as the saying goes and said there was honour amongst thieves. Now they would steal from their own families and how life has become worthless to some people. I know life has changed drastically for some people and everyone is in a different financial situation but to me scammers are the worst form of low life.

I refuse to use any link which comes from an email. I took this up with my Bank who sent an email with such a link. They apologised and said it came from an outside source which was under contract to run a survey. Many companies do this and it should be banned.
I use two credit agencies who send reminders for me to check. I refuse to use these, go direct to their websites, log in and check that the address shows a lock which, I am told, proves it it is encrypted and secure. I suggest this process to everyone- fiddly but safe.

I spent 40 years in the IT industry. Scammers did not exist in the early days but there were plenty of crooks exploiting people – nothing changes. My rules are very simple “Never reply to a text or respond to a phone call when you do not know the actual person whatever the ‘urgent’ reason to call you or the great offer that is only available for a very short time. If you think it might be a genuine important contact, call the company/organisation/police etc on their helpline number as advertised on their literature or their genuine website. There are no exceptions to these rules. This is really easy!