A costly email scam is affecting people across Wiltshire with numerous reports of it happening to Wiltshire-based residents.

Several Swindonians have reported having false emails sent to them purporting to be from TV Licensing.

These often state that the TV owner’s license is expiring and that they will have to follow a weblink to sort out a new one.

The following steps require spending money to apparently renew the license but it is actually a scam that Swindonians should be careful of.

Joy Oakley of Old Town has received multiple email scams in the past month that claim to be regarding her TV license.

“I received an email on Tuesday, March 14, that was very official looking and if it wasn’t for the fact I don’t pay for a TV license, I wouldn’t have known it was fake,” she said.

“I am very savvy as I can usually recognise a scam when I see one but others, especially the elderly cannot.”

The 78-year-old was then sent a second email on Saturday, March 25, which was not as well constructed as the prior communication she had received.

“It didn’t look very official and it wanted me to press a button and pay money so I did not engage,” said Joy.

“They would have cleared my bank out wouldn’t they!”

Joy is no stranger to internet safety having been a computer software teacher earlier on in her career.

“I used to teach people about computers years ago and I absolutely loved doing it,” she said.

“I enjoyed teaching older people the most because many did not believe that they could do it.

“But I believe anyone can do anything as it just depends on how much you want it.”

The Old Town resident has had her family selected in the past by scammers who managed to make over £1,000 from her daughter.

“My daughter was scammed by a false savings scam a couple of years ago,” said Joy.

“The scam was via a message they sent to her claiming to be me but the tell-tale sign though was that they signed off as Joy rather than mum!”

Especially given her background in IT, Joy is especially disheartened by scammers targeting the elderly.

“I personally get a lot of scam emails and I have no idea how they get hold of my email address,” she said.

“It makes me angry that people are taking advantage of others.”