When Is A Parking Fine Not A Parking Fine?

It’s one of those things that can ruin your day…

You get back from wherever you’ve been, whether it’s popping into the shops or on a job, and you see that bright yellow ticket stuck to your window.

Parking fines are the bane of everyone’s lives.

 But imagine having the double frustration of finding the ticket, only to find out that it’s not even a real ticket… and you’ve been scammed.

That’s precisely the situation that’s unfolding in Calgary, Canada, where fake parking fines are appearing on windscreens all over the city.

And it’s spreading to New York and California, too…

CLICK HERE to read the full story on how fake parking tickets are becoming a common scam

The fines look real to all intents and purposes, but the link to make a payment is where the phishing scam takes off.

It essentially means that criminals can steal payment information from the online payment portal, so what drivers thought was a £2.50 fine (or an unpaid ticket), turns into a banking nightmare.

As with all scams of this nature, the portal to pay (and the fine itself) all look legitimate, so for a lot of people, there’s no reason to suspect foul play.

By using QR codes, criminals can even avoid having to spoof web addresses, which means it’s definitely something to look out for.

Not all parking fines are really parking fines, it turns out!