From April 1, drivers of electric vehicles will be facing vehicle excise duty (VED) – commonly known as car tax – costs for the first time, and standard rate charges for petrol and diesel cars will increase, too. But as drivers prepare to pay these new costs, there’s a risk of the rise of VED payment scams, they are being warned.
Rhydian Jones, Confused.com car insurance expert, said: “Since the budget, drivers are coming to terms with the increase in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) in any new petrol or diesel cars purchased next year, as well as new standard rate charge increases for all internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.”
Mr Jones issued a warning to drivers to make sure they’re paying through official channels: “However, some drivers are being tricked by VED payment requests which are in fact scams, and are being warned to avoid these. Here’s what you should look out for if you think you might have received a scam:
· Check your records before making any payments. This way, if you receive an email at a time of year not close to your renewal date, you will know not to pay it.
· Look out for any spelling mistakes or strange formatting in the email
· Oftentimes, scams come from strange email addresses that don’t correlate with an official address.
“If you do end up clicking a link from a scam email or text, you could end up losing a lot of money. Always be vigilant, your car tax need to be renewed once per year and drivers can use our tax checker tool to see if their car is taxed and how long it has left. That way, you are less likely to fall for any unexpected notifications that could be trying to catch you out. ”