Four Ways to Protect Yourself from Parking Scams
Don’t be fooled by a fake parking fine – four ways to protect yourself from scams!
Over the summer, there have been a rise in parking scams across the UK.
People have reported having their card details secretly stolen by cark park machines that have been tampered with and receiving fake text messages from fraudsters about unpaid tickets asking for bank details.
Read on to find out the best ways to keep yourself and your family protected from some of the most common tricks that parking fine scammers use.
1. Look out for these three details on your fine
If you have received a fake parking fine, it might be difficult to figure out whether it is legitimate or not.
Luckily, there are some key things you can look out for in order to verify that a parking fine you have received is legitimate and not a parking scam.
Each real parking fine will include three specific details:
- Your vehicle registration number
- The time of the offence
- The location where the offence took place
If the parking fine you received does not have these three key details it is a scam.
Genuine parking fines will always come in writing and may be handed to you in person, sent to you in the post, or left on your windscreen.
There are three different kinds of fines that you can receive.
A fixed penalty notice that is issued by police and usually linked to an offence like speeding, a penalty charge notice that will be issued to you by the council and a parking charge notice which is issued by a private company.
Parking charge notices are invoices for breaching parking rules, so they aren’t technically fines meaning you don’t always have to pay them, but it is really important that you check the details of the notice carefully before refusing to pay.
2. Don’t click on any links you receive in suspected fraudster texts
If you receive an unexpected text or email put of the blue telling you that you owe money for an unpaid parking ticket, stop before clicking on any links. Like many other scam texts and emails, the message will probably encourage you to click on a link or share further details with them – do not do this.
This is one of the most common ways that scammers are able to gain access to your personal details and bank accounts.
Some scam texts might even claim that your license will be revoked if you don’t pay a sum of money for the ticket, but that is incorrect and you will not lose your license for this.
Generally, if you think a link is suspicious you should not click on it at all, and check whether the sender is a legitimate contact email/number by seeing if it is listed on the official sender’s site.
3. Restart your phone and change your passwords
If you have clicked on a suspicious link, try not to worry, but do make sure that you carry out these three steps.
- Restart your phone/laptop: Lots of the links that scammers use allow them to gain remote access to your device. Turning off and restarting your device will kill that connection instantly.
- Change your passwords: If you have filled in details on the link make sure to change the passwords of any accounts that share that password and login combo. It is important to make sure you have changed the passwords to any accounts with money in.
- Phone your bank: Call your bank and explain the situation. You should be passed onto your banks fraud department where you can give them the details of the message, the link you clicked and the information that you inputted on the site.
It might also be helpful to install antivirus software so that you can then run a search to find out whether any malware has been installed on your device.
4. Keep an eye out for skimming devices on parking machines
A newer scam, which according to the UK’s national fraud reporting centre Action Fraud is on the rise, targets people who are paying for parking in person at machines.
In this scam, fraudsters will attach a physical device to the contactless payment readers that are located on parking meter machines. When you try to pay, the machine will then display a message reading ‘card declined’. At this point, the scammers device has already stolen your card details.
To figure out whether a machine has been tampered with you should:
- Look for an unusual extra sticker on the card machine: This sticker or small item could be placed on top of the contactless payment button.
- Verify the branding on the machine: Make sure you check that the logos and branding on the machine all match each other. Scammers often use stickers/devices with logos that do not match the machine.
- Be aware of QR codes: Fraudsters will sometimes put fake parking posters up with QR codes prompting you to scan them to go to the website to pay. Check that the poster looks legitimate and if in doubt go directly to the website of the car park (or payment channel) or use an official app instead of scanning QR codes (these will be available on the machines themselves and the larger signs).
- Trust your instincts: If something feels or looks suspicious, or you are in doubt of the safety of the machine, do not use it.
And remember – contactless readers should look like they are part of the whole machine, if they seem to have been bolted on, look out of place or seem mismatched it is always better not to risk it. Trust your gut!
If you feel like something isn’t right with the machine then you can always opt to pay in cash or use a parking app instead.