Car parking scams
Extracts from an Alert Message from Thames Valley Police
From Fake Text messages about unpaid tickets to tampered car park machines that secretly steal your card details, fraudsters are becoming increasingly creative.
Fake parking fines
Three signs to ascertain that it is a genuine parking notice:
Real Parking fines will include the vehicle registration
Real Parking fines will show the time/date of the offence
Real Parking fines will show the Location where the alleged offence took place
A genuine fine will always come in writing and will be left on your windscreen, handed to you in person or arrive in the post. There are three types of fines you may receive:
A penalty charge notice issued by the council
A fixed penalty notice issued by the police usually linked to offences such as speeding
A parking charge notice issued by a private company
What to do - and not do
If you have received a text message or email that doesn’t feel right, STOP! (This advice applies to all suspicious communications, not just potential parking scams.)
Break the contact: do not reply, do not click on any links, do not call any phone numbers, do not make any payments.
Check if it is genuine: contact the organisation directly using an email address or phone number you know is correct, e.g. from bills or official communications, via a search engine, on the back of your bank card, by calling 159 (see below)
Forward spam calls and texts messages to 7726 and emails to report@phishing.gov.uk.
Visit the StopThinkFraud website (website opens in new tab) for information on how to protect yourself from fraud. If you have lost money or provided financial information because of fraud, notify your bank immediately and report it to Report Fraud (website opens in new tab).
