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ScamWatch
Readers warn readers11Warn your fellow readers about scams
at [email protected]Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools
Council tax & energy rebate scams
Updated DuckDuckGo
extensionSimon says ‘it’s a scam’
“Simon attempted to deliver today
your parcel but no one answered”.
So read a text message I received
on 15 May. It’s the first time I’ve
received a scam that mentioned the
name of the person delivering, so it
made me look twice. But then I saw
the URL I was meant to click to
“reschedule & track” my parcel:
https://postoffice-depot38.com.
That didn’t sound genuine to me, so I
searched online and apparently
quoting a depot number is a new
tactic of scammers, as must be
adding a person’s name. Well, this is
one game of Simon Says that I won’t
be playing.
Fiona ShortGoogle’s jargon-
development team have
been working overtime.
They’ve come up with
FLEDGE, standing for First
Locally-Executed Decision
over Groups Experiment.
That sounds like gibberish to
the average person, which
suits Google because it’s
actually a new method of
tracking your activity online
when browsing in Chrome.
Thankfully, DuckDuckGo are experts
at deciphering Google’s jargon. On
their blog (www.snipca.com/42014)
they say that FLEDGE means you’ll
“continue to have creepy ads following
you around the web”.
They’re similarly damning about
Google’s other new tracking tool,called Topics, which
triggers the same
“fundamental privacy
issues of automatically
sharing information about
your online behaviour
with websites and
tracking companies
without your consent”.
In response,
DuckDuckGo has updated
its browser extension to
thwart Google’s new tracking
onslaught. If you’ve not installed it yet,
do so at http://www.snipca.com/42015.
When you’re on a site with trackers, its
duck icon in your browser toolbar will
change into a letter rating indicating
the site’s privacy strength (A is good, F
is terrible). Sky News, for example, gets
a B+ (see screenshot).What’s the threat?
Scammers are impersonating energy
regulator Ofgem by sending emails
that claim you can sign up for both a
council-tax rebate and a discount on
your energy bill.
The messages contain Ofgem’s genuine
logo, and have the heading ‘You Are
Eligible To Apply For Energy Bill Rebate’
(^1 in our screenshot). They give you a
deadline to claim an energy discount
worth £200, and a non-repayable
council-tax rebate of £250. Clicking the
black ‘Claim Bill Rebate Now’ button
takes you to a fake Ofgem-branded
website where you’re asked to submit
your personal details, and set up a direct
debit to receive your rebate.How can you stay safe?
The scam refers to genuine Government
schemes to claim rebates, but you can’t
apply for them through Ofgem (the
regulator has confirmed it’s a scam andthe next five years from
April 2023.
Likewise, the council-tax
rebate, available to
households in council tax
bands A to D, will – if you
pay by direct debit – get
paid automatically to your
account from your local
authority. If you don’t pay
by direct debit, your council
will ask you to apply for
the payment.
The scam is a sign that
criminals have moved on
from Covid and are now
exploiting the latest crisis –
the soaring cost of living.
The emails sent so far gave the deadline
for claiming the rebates as 1 June 2022^2 ,
but you can expect more to be sent after
that, specifically as we near the deadline
(30 September) for councils to make the
payment.has asked the National Cyber Security
Centre to investigate). In fact, you don’t
need to claim the energy rebate at all.
Instead, electricity suppliers will
automatically deduct £200 from your
bills in October, then add £40 a year forIssue 633 • 8 – 21 June 20221
2