Beware of licence fraud

Published: Thursday, 22 April 2010

THERE is the real possibility of boaters being fraudulently deceived into giving their payment card details regarding licensing.

British Waterways have confirmed that a boater was approached by telephone  by someone claiming to be from British Waterways' licence renewal team calling to say that the customer's boat licence was overdue and asking for payment card details to renew it.

Standard practice

To clarify the situation, it is not BW standard practice to initiate telephone contact with customers for standard licence or mooring renewals. Contact from BW regarding licence renewal is initially made by post. While BW does offer telephone payment, this always involves the customer instigating this process.

If you receive a call purporting to be from BW asking for personal or financial details, ask for the caller's name and telephone number and say you'll call them back. Then report the call details to BW's customer services on 01923 201120 who will be able to confirm whether this is a genuine call.