Fake Council Home Improvement Texts

Published: 20 April 2021

We've been contacted by a local resident concerned about a suspicious text message they received.

The text claims to be from 'CouncilUK' and asks the recipient whether they have any damp or issues in their home.  The sender then claims to be offering home improvements and money back on rent.  It asks the recipient to click a link.
Red flags that suggest this is not a genuine message are:

• The text was unsolicited and was received out of the blue.
• The sender 'Council UK' is not a genuine organisation.
• The text includes a link to click. (We haven't visited this link but it's likely to ask for personal information including bank or card details which would then be used to steal money or it could infect your device with malware).
• The text has a grammatical error as it starts a sentence with a lower case letter.

Beware any text message asking you to click a link, including where the message appears to be from a genuine organisation like NHS, HMRC, GOV.UK or a well known bank. Scammers can spoof the number of genuine organisations to make their communications look authentic.   It is best not to click on any link unless you know the message to be genuine.

Forward suspicious texts to 7726.

Suspicious emails can be forwarded to report@phishing.gov.uk. Do not click on links or attachments.