Energy Bill Rebate - is this a scam??

@GreenGran78

I came so close to falling for the child scam, it was when they asked me to pay a bill and I said yes, then they came out with a Fifield a little under £1,500 that I realised something wasn't right because my kids know in on benefits and wouldst have that sort of money available.
I tried calling the number they'd contacted me from but they cancelled the call as soon as it rang, so I called my son's own number, he answered it and said it wasn't him and that he knew it was a scam doing the rounds.
If the scanner has asked me for a more reasonable figure I could possibly have fallen full of it, I'm just glad they asked for a figure that was put off my reach.

Don't respond to texts, emails or phone calls about the utilities rebate. You don't have to adopt for it, it's being paid automatically by your utterly company.

All attempts to get you to apply for the rebate are SCAMS!

Scammers are always looking for new ways of scamming. When Covid began they were charging people for tests and PPI. People shopping online are asked for payments for undelivered parcels, or warned that their accounts have been hacked and they need to transfer their cash. The energy crisis is generating new scams.
Scammers often try to panic people into doing something stupid. One going the rounds is a message, supposedly from your child in an emergency situation, asking for cash. Many of these scam enterprises are run as businesses. The BBC news website had a story recently about people being offered lucrative jobs abroad, then being forced to work as 'slaves' in scam call centres, or grooming gangs online.
The safety rule is to stop and think, don't rush into anything, check the email address is authentic, and check on the
contact by another route. Remember that genuine businesses, banks and government departments will never ask for bank details or private information by email or phone call.

Send email to
[email protected]. and/or
SPAM 7726 text

Some energy companies are paying the £66 pm directly into bank accounts and leaving the DD the same for example British Gas. Others are reducing your DD by the same amount ie E.on in our case. MSE is the best source to find out whether the payment will go to your bank or from your DD. E.on have emailed to say our DD will be reducing. However without the subsidy it would have risen by £550 pa for electricity only.

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jerseygirl

I received an e mail from my energy company detailing the £66 every month from October. This is paid directly to the energy company and they deduct it from your monthly payment if you pay by direct debit. So if you would normally pay say £166 a month by direct debit you will pay £100 a month after the deduction. I dont know how you would get the money if you dont pay by direct debit. Hope this helps.

Not all companies are deducting it from your existing monthly payments. Some will take the usual direct debit and then credit the £66 or £67 to the account a few days later. EDF have told me that’s what they’re going to do.

This is on official gov page. All payments are automatic

Thanks for the warning, Fanny Cornforth

Sazzl, that’s very helpful advice, but I’m surprised your credit card company let the “unusual” transaction go through before alerting you with a one-time code text to ensure that it was genuine.

I take the attitude that ANYTHING financial is a scam until proved otherwise. I once ignored a text from my credit card company because of this. Then my card was rejected in a transaction, so I got hold of them. Turned out that the text had been legitimate, and I had to clear up some misunderstanding. I gave them a 'right earful' for contacting me that way!

I know what to do if you get a phone call saying there are unusual transactions on your credit card account as it happened to me.
I told the caller I would phone him back without giving any personal information eg DOB address etc
I rang the number on my card from a different phone, incase it was a scam and they were still on the line playing a dialling tone.
I told the person who answered that that I'd had a call from fraud department and was ringing back to check it was genuine.
I was put through to the fraud department
It was genuine and someone had cloned my details and spent £850 at a furniture online store.
They refunded my money, blocked my card and sent me a new one in the post 5 days later.
This is how to deal with a scam or real phone call claiming unusual transactions on your account. Hope this helps someone xx

I picked up a call on my mobile phone recently, only as it was a mobile number and I was expecting a friend to call. It was ibviously a recorded message !"This is Alison, thank you for your order, your account has been debited with £999.!!" Not having entered into a conversation with her I doubted she had my details, but rang my Bank to be in the safe side and reported to number to A tionFraud.

It came from a mobile phone and did not put your name on it.
That's how I can tell its a scam

That’s a scam …. Mine came via my utility company EDF…. they just tell you you’re going to get £66 per month for oct/nov
Then £67 per month Dec/Jan/feb/mar
Tell you how it’s gonna be paid …depending how you pay your bills…and that’s where it ends … you do nothing. In my case my benefit is being paid back into my account !

I don’t do on line banking. I am with First Direct. Telephone bank. When I was buying a rider recliner bed with my FD master card the bank phoned me to make sure it was legit.
Had email purporting to come from Santander Bank. I deleted.
Because I am housebound and cannot get cash I use cheques to pay my helps and chiropodist.
Watched a programme on TV how these widows were scammed out of thousands of pounds. One £350, 000! I have no savings so no good scamming me!

Granny23

Today, by email I have had an alert from "Amazon" saying that someone at the other end of the country has tried to access my Amazon account. It then gives me a link to log in and change my password, etc. I am sure this is a scam as (poorly worded) what should I do?

Granny23 if you Google 'Amazon spam emails' (or any other company, come to that) it will come up with an email address to forward the spam email to. You do not need to write a message explaining what you are doing, just forward to that address and then delete the original. You will then get an automated reply from Amazon (or whichever company it is). Amazon's address for such things is [email protected]

Hope this helps

It'as as scam. Forward it to [email protected].

I received an e mail from my energy company detailing the £66 every month from October. This is paid directly to the energy company and they deduct it from your monthly payment if you pay by direct debit. So if you would normally pay say £166 a month by direct debit you will pay £100 a month after the deduction. I dont know how you would get the money if you dont pay by direct debit. Hope this helps.

I have three new texts:

Evri - your item has a £1.45 shipping fee, pay this now at evri.id.35 etc. Not ordered anything.

O2. We were unable to process your most recent bill. To avoid disconnection blah blah blah. We're not with O2.

UK Help
GOVUK. You are eligible for a discounted energy bill under the ...... blah blah whatever

Please make it a rule never to click on links Fanny.

No, Esspee, but I very nearly did. The ‘website’ that it opened to looked totally and utterly genuine

FannyCornforth

Yesterday I had a genuine text from the DWP regarding Cost of Living Payments.
It included a link to check if you are eligible.
It clearly said that the sender was the DWP and did not include the sender’s phone number

Fanny did you really think that text was genuine? If you are being duped what hope is there for the old and vulnerable.

No that's a scam the rebate is automatic and will be paid by your suppliers you don't need to apply. Please do not enter any details here they are wanting to scam you.

Scam. Gov never use text

I received this yesterday, suspected it was a scam followed the link until they wanted my bank details (not a chance).