Parking ticket scam reported
THE National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN), made up of the Vale of Glamorgan Council and other Local Authorities, has warned of a recent parking ticket scam.
Three members of the organisation reported that residents from their areas have received a text message purporting to be from the local council claiming a parking fine needed to be paid.
In these cases, no fines had been issued so the communications, which came from a variety of mobile numbers, were bogus.
NAFN is a data and intelligence service established to protect the public.
Cllr Ruba Sivagnanam, Vale of Glamorgan Council Cabinet Member for Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, Equalities and Regulatory Services, said: “Unfortunately, scams targeting the public are common and have become more sophisticated in recent years. They often make use of the latest technology and can be very convincing with fraudsters’ methods and techniques developing at pace.
“Shared Regulatory Services carries out trading standards safeguarding in the Vale, Cardiff and Bridgend Local Authority areas and is actively involved in raising awareness of fraud to prevent harm to consumers.
“But it is also important for residents to be more vigilant and questioning than ever before given the type of complex deceptions we are now seeing.
“Always ask yourself whether a communication is genuine and if you have any doubt, contact the organisation or person yourself to check.
"It is useful to Stop, Think and Check, before you respond or provide any personal or sensitive details.”
In regard to the parking ticket scam referenced, the text message read: “Please Pay a parking penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by a local council. If you do not pay a PCN within 28 days, you’ll get a ‘charge certificate’ and you’ll have 14 days to pay the original fine plus 50% more.
If you do not pay you’ll be prosecuted - you may have to pay a bigger fine as well as court costs. Please pay your fine at the link after reading the information”
The wording below appears on the UK Government website where legitimate parking fines are paid and has likely been added by fraudsters so the communication appears more credible.
“If you do not pay a PCN within 28 days, you’ll get a ‘charge certificate’ and you’ll have 14 days to pay the original fine plus 50% more”
The text messages include a link to pay the fine, which when clicked on displays a website containing a phone number.
Consumers have also reported that fake QR codes have been placed on a number of pay-and-display parking machines.
Some of the QR codes claim to link to the legitimate mobile parking application PayByPhone whose domain name is www.paybyphone.co.uk.
The fake QR codes take users to the webpage pay--by--phone.com, which displays the actual PayByPhone logo, but is not safe and should not be accessed.