TENS of thousands of television viewers who have entered their details on the TV Licensing website in the past few weeks are being urged to check their bank statements for suspicious transactions following a data alert.

TV Licensing warns that from 29 August until around 3.20pm on 5 September 2018, some transactions carried out on the website were "not as secure as they should have been".

1 TV Licensing says customers should check their bank accounts for suspicious transactions Credit: PA:Press Association

It is emailing 40,000 people who entered bank account and sort code details telling them to check their bank accounts for suspicious transactions and to make sure direct debits haven’t been amended.

Information including names, addresses, and emails is also at risk because they were not encrypted when they were transmitted from customers' computers to TV Licensing.

Over 25.8million people had a TV licence in 2016/17 - the latest figures available from TV Licensing.

How to watch TV legally without paying for a licence IN the UK, any household watching or recording live television must hold a TV licence. In recent years, this has been extended to include BBC programmes on iPlayer, whether they are live, catch up or on demand. But does everyone really need a licence? Here’s the lowdown on how to avoid paying – legally. Watch on demand TV available through services such as ITV Player, All4, My5, BT Vision/BT TV, Virgin Media, Sky Go, Now TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

available through services such as ITV Player, All4, My5, BT Vision/BT TV, Virgin Media, Sky Go, Now TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. Watch on demand movies from services such as Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.

from services such as Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video. Watch recorded films and programmes either via DVD or Blu-ray, or downloaded from the internet.

either via DVD or Blu-ray, or downloaded from the internet. Watch YouTube where you can view video clips and more.

If you detect any suspicious activity on your account, contact your bank or building society urgently and report it to national crime reporting agency Action Fraud.

You can also contact TV Licensing with any queries on 0300 790 6024 or visit its online FAQs page.

The company stresses that debit and credit card details are unaffected, as are customers who rang TV Licensing to make transactions over the phone during this period.

A spokesperson for TV Licensing said: “While there is no evidence that anyone’s data has been compromised, for a limited period certain transactions carried out on our website were not as secure as they should have been. This has now been fixed.

“While the risk of anyone having seen any of this data is low, because we take data security seriously we’ve written to people who may have sent their bank details to our website during this period to alert them and advise them to speak to their bank if they see any unusual activity.

“We’re really sorry this happened but want to reassure customers that the risk is low and we’ve taken action to ensure it doesn’t happen again. There is no evidence of any attack and we’ve found no evidence of any unauthorised access to information."

The data alert comes just days after a British Airways data breach that affected hundreds of thousands of customers.

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For more information on the TV licence, check out our guide; Do I need a TV licence to watch TV, how is is the BBC funded and can I watch BBC iPlayer if I don’t have one?

There are tricks you can use to watch TV legally WITHOUT a licence.

A record number of Brits have also cancelled their TV licence fee in favour of streaming sites Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Do I need a TV Licence? Watch this video to find out how to get covered

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