DVLA has released pictures of some of the cons being used by scammers to trick motorists into handing over their money.
It comes as new figures show a 20% increase in scams reported to DVLA, with 1,538 reports made to agency in the last three months of 2019.
The reports of suspected web, email, text or social media scams were up from 1,275 in the same period in 2018. DVLA has released the images of recent scams reported to help motorists be aware of what to look out for and issue a clear warning that if something offered online or by text message appears too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.
Scammers are targeting unsuspecting customers with links to services that don't exist and messages of tax refunds, all of which are fake.
The reports also show that driver and vehicle documents are for sale on the internet. DVLA is advising anyone with concerns about any calls, texts, emails or suspicious activity online, to always report these to the police via Action Fraud immediately.
DVLA chief information security officer David Pope said:
We've released examples of real life scams to help motorists understand when a scam is at work. These websites and messages are designed to trick people into believing they can access services that simply don't exist such as removing penalty points from driving licences.
All our tax refunds are generated automatically after a motorist has told us they have sold, scrapped or transferred their vehicle to someone else so we don't ask for anyone to
