Being hassled for tv licence

[Hammersia]

Cancelled my tv licence a year ago, advised them I didn't need it. All been quiet, just had an email saying I've been using iplayer. Doesn't specifically say I've been using it at my address but I assume that's what they mean.

Don't THINK I have, I occasionally click on the BBC news website on my computer, if it plays a short news clip that's not iplayer is it?

iplayer is by default on my tv, and on my apple tv, I never click on it since I cancelled the licence.

I'm the only one in the household. Certainly possible a friend has borrowed my account login but definitely not at my address.

How worried should I be?

Or should I go for compo?

Edit - I've just changed my bbc password

Edited by Hammersia on Tuesday 6th February 14:50

[Drogo]

If you don't watch "Live TV" you don't need to pay the bbc tax.

They would have to prove you had watched or you admitted to watching live TV for a prosecution.

Ignore all the letters you'll get and don't talk to any "enforcement officer" that may come knocking until the bbc is abolished.

Edit to add:
And TV detector vans are a myth and always have been.
Youtube Chilli Jon Carne
https://www.youtube.com/c/ChilliJonCarne

Edited by Drogo on Tuesday 6th February 15:16

[zarjaz1991]

This whole thing relies entirely on self-incrimination. Just ignore them completely. They can do precisely nothing if you do not engage with them.

If they turn up at your door for any reason just be polite and say no thank you and close the door.

[Bill]

Drogo said:

If you don't watch "Live TV" you don't need to pay the bbc tax.

You do to watch or download from iPlayer.

If you've changed your password then log out on your TVs as well.

Presumably a friend or device has logged in hence the email.

[ARHarh]

Surely the BBC news site uses iplayer for its video feeds, therefore to watch them you need to pay the tax.

[E-bmw]

Drogo said:

And TV detector vans are a myth and always have been.
Youtube Chilli Jon Carne
https://www.youtube.com/c/ChilliJonCarne

Don't believe all you read on YT, yes they were real back when TVs were "big".

The technology they used was called "Local Oscillator Re-radiation" whereby the Radio Frequency local oscillator within the TV tuner that tuned to the TV channel frequency would "leak" tuned frequency back up through the antenna and this could be detected by a van with the correct equipment on the roadside.

The Direction finding equipment could then also be used to pinpoint the antenna radiating the tuned frequency similar to how you see it done in old WW2 films where they are hunting for FR spies etc.

Having said that not all of the "detector vans" were equipped with all of the above gear as it was very expensive, somewhere around 2/3 - 3/4 were dummy vans which is where the myth likely comes from.

[Pica-Pica]

ARHarh said:

Surely the BBC news site uses iplayer for its video feeds, therefore to watch them you need to pay the tax.

A tax is government imposed, this is a licence fee.

[Pica-Pica]

Bill said:

Drogo said:

If you don't watch "Live TV" you don't need to pay the bbc tax.

You do to watch or download from iPlayer.

If you've changed your password then log out on your TVs as well.

Presumably a friend or device has logged in hence the email.

You also need to pay the licence fee to watch any live terrestrial channel, so that applies to ITV live.

[Downward]

E-bmw said:

Drogo said:

And TV detector vans are a myth and always have been.
Youtube Chilli Jon Carne
https://www.youtube.com/c/ChilliJonCarne

Don't believe all you read on YT, yes they were real back when TVs were "big".

The technology they used was called "Local Oscillator Re-radiation" whereby the Radio Frequency local oscillator within the TV tuner that tuned to the TV channel frequency would "leak" tuned frequency back up through the antenna and this could be detected by a van with the correct equipment on the roadside.

The Direction finding equipment could then also be used to pinpoint the antenna radiating the tuned frequency similar to how you see it done in old WW2 films where they are hunting for FR spies etc.

Having said that not all of the "detector vans" were equipped with all of the above gear as it was very expensive, somewhere around 2/3 - 3/4 were dummy vans which is where the myth likely comes from.

And the detector vans would more then likely be using covert equipment to do stakeouts and catch real criminals.

[Bill]

Pica-Pica said:

You also need to pay the licence fee to watch any live terrestrial channel, so that applies to ITV live.

As Drogo said, I was just adding the iPlayer bit.

[NFT]

Bill said:

You do to watch or download from iPlayer.

If you've changed your password then log out on your TVs as well.

Presumably a friend or device has logged in hence the email.

Yes, doubt they track IP addresses down and try detect which house it was assigned to at the time; must be a pre-existing account logged in using your address or something.

If have good neighbors and they start coming round, have them go out and ask if they are looking for you, then say "I'm so sorry, he died recently, kids will likely ransack house then sell it, have you come far?"

[captain.scarlet]

Had a similar experience in 2017/18.

E-mail to say the use of iPlayer from my address had been detected.

Didn't hear anything ever again.

That said, for what it's worth I just deal with the TV Licence letters as soon as they arrive. Consider it a bit like a road tax reminder. I don't have the appetite for confrontation or cheap Youtube views and I'm not well versed in the Magna Carta or how to perform a citizen's arrest like those you can find confronting the bailiffs and police.

[Hammersia]

Pica-Pica said:

Bill said:

Drogo said:

If you don't watch "Live TV" you don't need to pay the bbc tax.

You do to watch or download from iPlayer.

If you've changed your password then log out on your TVs as well.

Presumably a friend or device has logged in hence the email.

You also need to pay the licence fee to watch any live terrestrial channel, so that applies to ITV live.

Yep, I don't watch any live terrestial channel, the email specifically says I've been using iplayer.

If a friend has been using my account details to watch iplayer at their address, where they do have a licence for that property, am I still in trouble? I don't know this has happened but seems the most logical explanation.

(As I say, I've changed my password now).

[Bill]

Hammersia said:

Yep, I don't watch any live terrestial channel, the email specifically says I've been using iplayer.

If a friend has been using my account details to watch iplayer at their address, where they do have a licence for that property, am I still in trouble? I don't know this has happened but seems the most logical explanation.

(As I say, I've changed my password now).

I shouldn't worry about it, they're pretty toothless unless you start admitting to anything and entirely reasonable IME if they do turn up and ask.

[Drogo]

Rest easy.
The letter is most likely speculative.
They would still need to come up with evidence and I'm not convinced they can via the web.

Even so I don't do bbc anything and will never again.

If you do not watch any live tv or use iplayer you do not need a licence. Even the bbc's own website will tell you that.

There was a drawn out FOI request of the bbc to ask how many people had been prosecuted via evidence of the detector vans, the bbc could not provide any figures.

[eldar]

Use a vpn, their heads will spin.

[NFT]

Drogo said:

Rest easy.
The letter is most likely speculative.
They would still need to come up with evidence and I'm not convinced they can via the web.

Even so I don't do bbc anything and will never again.

If you do not watch any live tv or use iplayer you do not need a licence. Even the bbc's own website will tell you that.

There was a drawn out FOI request of the bbc to ask how many people had been prosecuted via evidence of the detector vans, the bbc could not provide any figures.

I knew a very elderly gent who had been a licence man some years ago, his detector equipment was a list of addresses not having a licence, and he would try look through window or see flickers through curtain, then claim to have detected a TV.

[E-bmw]

NFT said:

I knew a very elderly gent who had been a licence man some years ago, his detector equipment was a list of addresses not having a licence, and he would try look through window or see flickers through curtain, then claim to have detected a TV.

That is exactly what the blank vans were, a list, a map & a bloke.

[Shar2]

My aged Father has just gone into a care home as he couldn't look after himself in his house. My sister cancelled his TV licence and within a week he had received a letter saying that theTV licence enforcement officers had visited and would be back, and to not ignore the letter. He's 96 FFS, he shouldn't be bloody paying for the it anyway. My sister had to phone them again saying he no longer lives there. When my fiance' and I visit him we stay at his house, but we never watch the TV so they can jog on.

[NFT]

Shar2 said:

My aged Father has just gone into a care home as he couldn't look after himself in his house. My sister cancelled his TV licence and within a week he had received a letter saying that theTV licence enforcement officers had visited and would be back, and to not ignore the letter. He's 96 FFS, he shouldn't be bloody paying for the it anyway. My sister had to phone them again saying he no longer lives there. When my fiance' and I visit him we stay at his house, but we never watch the TV so they can jog on.

Did you declare not needing it online? Generally leave you alone, unless of course some automated checker aligns your address and iplayer account and they email you like with OP,