Police issue urgent warning to the public about coronavirus text scam

1 April 2020, 08:35 | Updated: 1 April 2020, 08:53

Their alert comes after a nasty text has been identified as circulating around the Birmingham area.

West Midlands police has issued a warning to local residents after a malicious text scam has been instructing vulnerable people to pay up for a nonexistent fine.

Soho Road Police wrote a post on their Twitter account explaining that they’d recently been made aware of another fine that was affecting the Birmingham area.

Their warning reads: “Unfortunately we have been made aware of another scam message being sent out via text. Do not respond to the message or click any of the links.

"Please share this message with as many ppl as you can”.

Along with the Tweet they added a picture of the scam text message, displaying exactly what the con artists have been sending around, and it's pretty convincing.

The full message has a title, reading GOV.UK CORONAVIRUS ALERT.

It then reads "New rules now in force now: you must stay at home.

"More info & exemptions at gov.uk/coronavirus.

"We would like to inform you that you have been recorded as leaving your home on 3 occasions yesterday.

" A fine of £35 has been added to your gov.uk account.

"For further information please visit gov.uk/coronavirus-penalty-payment-tracking. Protect the NHS. Save Lives."

There is then a link, to what is presumed to be a mock-up of a gov.uk account, typically a ploy to get vulnerable people's card details.

This is the latest coronavirus scam which West Midlands Police is warning the public to be aware of, as only a matter of days ago a text message circulated saying that the recipients are eligible to claim £458 of 'coronavirus aid'.