Overview

• Local police forces and the Department for Work and Pensions have reported a surge in phishing texts and emails that mimic official winter fuel payment communications.
• Fraudsters are exploiting deceptive domains such as links ending in ".cfd" and cloned GOV.UK pages to trick recipients into submitting personal and bank details.
• Authorities confirm that eligible pensioners will receive winter fuel payments automatically in November and December without needing to complete any forms or make payments.
• Recipients are urged to delete suspicious messages, forward scam texts to 7726, email phishing reports to report@phishing.gov.uk, and contact their bank immediately if they have shared financial information.
• Scam-reporting platform Phonely recorded 280 incidents this year, while the National Crime Agency estimates only 14% of scams are reported, suggesting the true scale of the fraud is far greater.