Parking scam alert

Residents are being urged to be aware of two new parking scams in the region.

There have been a significant number of reports of a text, pretending to be from the local authority, requesting urgent payment for a parking fine.

The message* reads:  “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.”

As well as Darlington, councils in County Durham, South Tyneside, Gateshead, North Tyneside, Northumberland, Newcastle, Sunderland, Stockton-on-Tees and Redcar & Cleveland  have confirmed they are receiving reports of the same scam.

Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London has issued a national warning, advising that local authorities will never request payment for a parking fine via text. A legitimate parking charge notice is attached to the windscreen of the vehicle in a yellow envelope or sent via post to the registered keeper of the vehicle.

We are also warning of a second scam, where QR codes are being placed on pay and display parking machines pretending to be from parking providers such as PaybyPhone and RingGo. The fake QR codes take users to a web page that includes the logo of the provider, but uses a fraudulent website address, such as ‘pay--by--phone.com’.

If you believe you have been a victim of a scam please report the matter online to Action Fraud. Scam websites can also be reported online to the National Cyber Security Centre and fraudulent texts can be forwarded to 7726. There is more information about spotting scams on our website.  

*The scam text has been reported to have come from the following numbers:

• 07983474566

• 07367463054

• 07735553909

• 07904210588

• 07944625649 

• 07903658070

• 07920624658

• 07471494043