The British Government Scam

 

They never know how to stop. They will never go away. I speak, of course, of that vile lot known to infamy as homo sapiens spammeritis irritatingus- the internet scammer and spammer. They never give up in writing inane comments that have nothing to do with the subject matter, desperately trying to generate traffic for their own websites. They will send us emails promising riches beyond our wildest dreams if we only believe their unbelievable stories. Or they send us random emails with phishing links that will ruin your life if you click on that link. Such as the following. 

Welcome

Our records show that you are not up to date with your current vehicle tax.

This is your last (v11) reminder from us.

Your vehicle is not permitted to legally be on the road.

If you fail to pay your road tax you may face a fine or other penalties.

You must fill out the form below to be up to standard with the DVLA legal requirements.

Well, then. What do we say to that? Aside from the fact that this was not the last reminder but the very first time I'd received this email. This is the sort of email that sometimes comes as a scammer phone call- an automated voice claiming to be from a government agency saying they've locked your social insurance number unless you do everything they say (the actual departments have lots of online information saying they would never do this).

This tells me that my vehicle is not legally permitted to be on the road, because I haven't paid my vehicle tax. For the DVLA, which is a British government department.

First off, genius, I don't own a car. Second, I'm a Canadian citizen, not a British citizen. So the real DVLA has zero jurisdiction on a Canadian who doesn't own a car. And even if I were British, the actual department wouldn't be sending phishing emails to random people in their own country, let alone across the world.

Because this isn't the real DVLA. This is someone who lives in a basement, has no real job, no real purpose, no life, and nothing to do with their time but try to send out endless amounts of phishing emails in the desperate attempt that someone will open it up and believe their stupidity.

Nice try, numbskull. Really.

But this is what we should do with you.