A warning has gone out to anyone with a TV licence in York or North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire Police say a fake TV Licensing email scam is doing the rounds and they are asking people to be on their guard.

Andy Hugill, a digital PCSO for North Yorkshire Police, said: "The advice is to forward scam emails to the National Cyber Security Centre on report@phishing.gov.uk.

"Genuine TV Licensing emails are sent from donotreply@tvlicensing.co.uk or donotreply@spp.tvlicensing.co.uk

"If you have provided TV Licensing with your postcode details, their emails will include part of your postcode and/or the name on the licence.

"If you’ve given TV Licensing your name, then they’ll always address you using your last name and title. The scammers won’t normally have that information about you. So, watch out for emails that only address you as “Dear client” or “Dear customer” – or use your email address (or part of it).

"Because scammers can’t use genuine TV Licensing web addresses or email addresses, they’ll try to use slightly different spellings – look out for things like hyphens and full stops in odd places.

"Be suspicious too if there are mistakes in the email with capital letters or other grammatical errors, like missing full stops – this could be a scam.

"Also be wary of emails promising money/refunds. For example, phrases such as, “click below to access your refund”, followed by a request to provide your credit card or bank details (TV Licensing would never process a refund in this way).

"Always check links in an email before clicking or tapping them. If you're on a computer, hover over the link, but don't click it. This will reveal the name of the web address that you are being sent to. If you're on a smartphone or tablet, press and hold on the link, don't release while you are on the link. This will reveal the name of the web address that you are being sent to."

Age UK has also issued a warning about the increase in TV Licence scams.

They said: “These emails are a phishing scam, a common type of email fraud where scammers will send bogus emails pretending to be from a respectable organisation. This is to trick you into clicking through to a fake website where you will enter your personal details.

“For this scam, the emails are disguised to look like they have been sent by the TV Licensing organisation.

“They may say you're entitled to a refund for an overpayment or warn that your licence is about to expire. They will then ask you to respond by entering your bank details on a fake website.

“Although the emails may use the TV Licensing logo and have other features that make them look authentic, you should never trust them.”

Your bank (or any other official source) will never ask you to supply personal information via email.