Alarms have been raised over two new parking scams in the North East after swathes of residents received a text urging payment for a fine. 

The text - which pretends to be from a local authority in the region, asks people to cough up payment for a fake penalty charge notice or face prosecution. 

The second crafty scam sees fake QR codes placed on pay and display parking machines, taking people to a fake webpage before asking them to pay. 

Durham County Council and other local authorities across the region are joining forces to warn people of the scam, with councils confirming they have received reports on it including Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Darlington, Stockton, and Redcar and Cleveland. 

An example of the scam text messageAn example of the scam text message (Image: DARLINGTON COUNCIL)

The first scam, the text, has been reported to come from several numbers. It states: “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.”

Reported numbers include:  

  • 07983474566
  • 07367463054
  • 07735553909
  • 07904210588
  • 07944625649 
  • 07903658070
  • 07920624658
  • 07471494043

Meanwhile the second scam takes users to websites pretending to be legitimate parking providers, such as RingGo or PaybyPhone, using the logo of the provider, but a fraudulent address such as “pay–by–phone.com”. 

The fake QR codeThe fake QR code (Image: DARLINGTON COUNCIL)

Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London (PATROL) has issued a warning about this scam nationally, advising that councils will never request payment for a parking fine via text.

A legitimate Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) would be attached to the windscreen of the vehicle in a yellow envelope or sent via post to the registered keeper of the vehicle.

Cllr Elizabeth Scott, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for economy and partnerships, said: “We are aware of a number of new scams circulating at the moment aiming to take advantage of members of the public, particularly drivers.

The fake Government websiteThe fake Government website (Image: DARLINGTON COUNCIL)

“We would never contact vehicle owners by text, and we only accept payment at our car parks via the payment machine, or through the official PaybyPhone app or website. 

“If you receive a text which asks you to click a link to make a payment – do not click this link. Delete the text message and do not make a payment or provide your bank details.  

“Suspicious QR codes found in any of our car parks or parking places should be reported to parking services, which will investigate and inform the police.”

Anyone who believes they have been a victim of a scam should report the matter to Action Fraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk

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Scam websites can also be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre at www.ncsc.gov.uk and fraudulent texts can be forwarded to 7726.

Members of the public can find out more about scams, how to report them, and how to protect themselves from scams at www.durham.gov.uk/scams

They can also read about current scams at www.durham.gov.uk/currentscams