Discussion
I had a text message yesterday evening saying I had received a parking penalty charge from a local council. I clicked the link (slightly foolishly, I've done an anti-virus scan) but noticed pretty quickly that it was a spoof government website so didn't pay anything and reported the text as a scam.
However, I clicked the link because at the time I was parked in a pay and display car park without paying. That seems like an astonishing coincidence to get such a scam when I was illegally parked - something I do fairly rarely. I assumed I would get back to my car, to find a notice on the windscreen and the scammers are somehow intercepting the data when you get a legitimate fine, but I got back and there was nothing on the car.
The only explanations I can think of are:
a: Someone else using the car park at the time is connected to the scammers and saw I hadn't paid.
b: There was a penalty notice on the car and the scammers removed it so I wouldn't spot the correct information on it.
c. Massive coincidence.
To be honest, b seems most likely so I am concerned that I do have a parking fine but the notice has been removed and as I'm going away on Thurs until early Oct I doubt anything will get here in the post in time. Is there anyway to check if I have an outstanding fine so I can pay the lower figure before the 14 days expire?
TL:DR Is there anyway to find out if I have a parking fine without the notice stuck to the window.
However, I clicked the link because at the time I was parked in a pay and display car park without paying. That seems like an astonishing coincidence to get such a scam when I was illegally parked - something I do fairly rarely. I assumed I would get back to my car, to find a notice on the windscreen and the scammers are somehow intercepting the data when you get a legitimate fine, but I got back and there was nothing on the car.
The only explanations I can think of are:
a: Someone else using the car park at the time is connected to the scammers and saw I hadn't paid.
b: There was a penalty notice on the car and the scammers removed it so I wouldn't spot the correct information on it.
c. Massive coincidence.
To be honest, b seems most likely so I am concerned that I do have a parking fine but the notice has been removed and as I'm going away on Thurs until early Oct I doubt anything will get here in the post in time. Is there anyway to check if I have an outstanding fine so I can pay the lower figure before the 14 days expire?
TL:DR Is there anyway to find out if I have a parking fine without the notice stuck to the window.
Dark85 said:
blueg33 said:
Why didn't you pay for the car park?
I was only going for a short (~30 min) walk to break in some new boots, It was quite late in the day and the remote car park was fairly empty. As you can only pay for a full days parking I decided to take the risk.blueg33 said:
I always find that sort of thing a dilemma. I hate pay and Display because you almost always pay for more time than you use. When I was capitalising car park charges to pay for a hospital extension, pay and display massively increased the income!
I can imagine. I've noticed a few places lately where they offer some flexibility - but it's almost likely they deliberately set the lower amount of time at not quite enough to do the thing you'd be doing there. Hour hike to the summit? You can have half price parking for 90mins; things like that. I know some folk are sticklers for the rules but I'm happy using judgement to decide when rules can be ignored - but if you're going to do that you don't get to moan if you get caught.
Robertb said:
I remember a group of us parked cars in a recently disused police station car park one evening.
My friend who’d parked with us got a call on his mobile from the Police demanding the cars were moved ASAP or else.
Evidently the authorities can easily find your mobile number.
No they can't. In order to get that kind of data, they would need to know your phone network and then get a court order for the information. Of course, they would also need to provide a very good reason (this isn't one) and it would take a long time. My friend who’d parked with us got a call on his mobile from the Police demanding the cars were moved ASAP or else.
Evidently the authorities can easily find your mobile number.
Road2Ruin said:
Robertb said:
I remember a group of us parked cars in a recently disused police station car park one evening.
My friend who’d parked with us got a call on his mobile from the Police demanding the cars were moved ASAP or else.
Evidently the authorities can easily find your mobile number.
No they can't. In order to get that kind of data, they would need to know your phone network and then get a court order for the information. Of course, they would also need to provide a very good reason (this isn't one) and it would take a long time. My friend who’d parked with us got a call on his mobile from the Police demanding the cars were moved ASAP or else.
Evidently the authorities can easily find your mobile number.
I mean, at a total guess....
Those scams run often and they send the message to thousands of recipients at a time, sending to every possible mobile number, or those from a list that have been bought/stolen.
Out of all the people who receive a scam message, a proportion of them are likely to be parked in a car park either legitimately or not. And all of them will be thinking that it's a massive coincidence. Only it's not a coincidence, it's just poor luck.
Ignore the message. The sender didn't know whether you were parked at all. They're just hoping someone feels guilty enough to fall for their scheme.
Out of all the people who receive a scam message, a proportion of them are likely to be parked in a car park either legitimately or not. And all of them will be thinking that it's a massive coincidence. Only it's not a coincidence, it's just poor luck.
Ignore the message. The sender didn't know whether you were parked at all. They're just hoping someone feels guilty enough to fall for their scheme.
gotoPzero said:
Road2Ruin said:
Robertb said:
I remember a group of us parked cars in a recently disused police station car park one evening.
My friend who’d parked with us got a call on his mobile from the Police demanding the cars were moved ASAP or else.
Evidently the authorities can easily find your mobile number.
No they can't. In order to get that kind of data, they would need to know your phone network and then get a court order for the information. Of course, they would also need to provide a very good reason (this isn't one) and it would take a long time. My friend who’d parked with us got a call on his mobile from the Police demanding the cars were moved ASAP or else.
Evidently the authorities can easily find your mobile number.
I mean, at a total guess....
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