Residents in the East Riding are being urged to beware of a scam being sent out via text messages ordering people to pay non-existent parking fines.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council is urging people not to fall for the texts sent by scammers after receiving more than 100 calls from worried residents.
The false texts are a nationwide issue and are being sent at random to people’s mobile phones claiming to come from the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) and ordering them to pay an unpaid parking fine.
The text messages wrongly tell people they have a ‘parking penalty charge’ and that if they don’t pay by a certain date they may be banned from driving, have to pay a larger fine or be taken to court.
And in the past few days, the wording of the messages has become more threatening in nature.
Councillor Paul West, the council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said:
“To be absolutely clear, East Riding of Yorkshire Council never sends people text messages about parking fines – this is a cruel scam.
“This is a national problem. Scammers are sending these texts to people’s mobile phones across the country, and this is now affecting people in the East Riding.
“Our customer service team has received more than 100 calls over the past couple of weeks from worried local residents who have received these texts and have asked what to do. Each time the team has reassured them these messages are false.
“Please don’t fall for this scam. I would urge anyone who receives these text messages to ignore them and delete them or report them straight away.”
The council does not hold old mobile phone records and parking fines are only issued directly on vehicles or by post to the addresses of registered vehicle keepers.
The DVSA is asking people to report the text scam to the National Cyber Security Centre and has offered advice to anyone who has replied to the text: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dvsa-issues-warning-about-parking-fine-scam-text-messages
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