Between 29 August until 3.20pm on 5 September 2018, anyone who entered personal data via the website should contact their bank or building society to see if any suspicious activity has taken place.

The corporation said that following a technical update, there was an issue with the website’s security. The site was taken down as it investigated, but 25,000 people transacting at this time sent bank details without encryption.

While the issue didn’t affect credit or debit card details which were encrypted throughout, TV Licensing said personal details such as name, address, and email, or if customers entered bank details, the sort code and account number were potentially exposed.

It added it believes the risk of anyone else having seen information sent through the website during that period is extremely low but, because it takes a very cautious approach, it’s contacting customers to let them know what happened.

However, while the risk of financial loss is very low, TV Licensing said it will compensate any customers who may suffer financial loss as a result of their personal data being compromised.

A TV Licensing spokesperson, said: “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.”