The latest in a series of scams relating to the coronavirus claims to be from the Government, telling the recipient their movements have been monitored through their phone and they must pay a fine or face a more serious penalty.

The scammers are getting more sophisticated and using spoofing technology to make the messages seem even more realistic by adapting the sender’s name, using fake ‘gov.uk’ website URL’s and even adding themselves to the conversation chain of the genuine ‘GOV.UK’ message sent out last week.

And unfortunately, the list of new scams associated with Covid-19 is growing by the day.

Please always seek advice before replying to any messages that you receive of this nature. If you’ve received this text, please ignore it as it’s simply used as a way to steal your payment details.

The Government has only sent one text message to the public regarding new rules about staying at home to prevent the spread of the virus. Any other claiming to be from the Government are false.

In all of these cases, do not click or tap any links that these messages ask you to.

Community Matters. Now, more than ever…