I have not seen this particular scam before.
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@neil I got that email earlier. It was alarmingly realistic and I can see how it would be easy to fall for it (I don't have a car fortunately).
It used my Coursera email address, so I assume they've been compromised at some point.
@neil This would not work in germany because they actually send someone to scratch the tax stamp from your license plate after a grace period.
I get quite a few claiming to be from HMRC, but it's interesting that HMRC, unlike most companies is not actively training people to fall for these scams. I got a real email from them today and it did not contain any links. It specifically told me to go to the gov.uk web site and search for the right part. This gives them an extra layer of defence if someone has a plausible .gov.uk subdomain with weak security, because they can exclude that from their search index.
@neil @david_chisnall tbf their emails always tell you to go & log in at gov.uk
Yes, exactly. And that's something a phishing scam can't replicate. Unlike most bank emails, which say 'click on a link to some obfuscated URL! This one is definitely genuine!'.
@neil I get those
It's one of those things where it might be effective if you only received one but it pretty obvious when you receive 12 in a minute
@neil I have seen similar ones in my spam filter. it always makes me laugh as I do not own a vehicle. I get similar ones for my TV licence, which is on Direct debit. i just erase them
@neil I have had a few of those, and I reported those I got to the NCSC at report@phishing.gov.uk
@neil a popular scam in the US is to send an official looking message to you from a major city telling you that you were photographed violating traffic laws and you owe a fine. If you don't pay they'll revoke your license. As a rule, no government agency is going to send you an email or message about anything so it's laughable.
@neil Is that for your bicycle?
@neil Ha ha, "annual audit".
@neil I saw something similar recently - a warning for some expiry or other with no links, emails or anything else. The only recourse was to reply, and both the From: and Reply-To: addresses were genuine dvla.gov.uk addresses.
The sole thing I could think of is that it was an attempt to jam up DVLA email accounts and cause disruption.
@neil been seeing a steady stream for a couple of weeks now - I've a nasty feeling that it's lingered because it's (at least partially) effective.
The only real giveaway (other than the dodgy sender) is the idea that DVLA is organised enough to do an annual audit...
@ahnlak @neil when I got my first driving licence, the DVLA had my photo on the details of a Greek man and the birth year of 1940 for some unknown reason. Best fake ID I never paid for
They’re the last people I’d imagine being organised enough to remember their password, let alone able to type up a coherent message 😂