We would like to warn residents to be on their guard against a suspected fraudulent text message relating to the payment of an outstanding parking Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).
The suspected scam message residents have received says only that the recipient has received a PCN issued by ‘your local council’ and provides no further detail.
It then states that if the person does not pay, they will be prosecuted.
A web link embedded within the text takes recipients to a website. Sutton Coldfield is listed as the location of the alleged contravention when a vehicle’s registration number is entered. The payment page is live, however, and could take transactions if details are entered.
Trading standards officials state that where the rules of a car park are genuinely broken, the registered keeper of the vehicle involved will receive a letter and not a text message, because vehicles are registered to addresses not phone numbers.
The Town Council is not responsive for any of the car parks in Sutton Coldfield.
Trading standards officials advise people to forward the message on to 7726, OFCOM’s scam call and text message reporting facility, and then delete it. Find out how to forward details to OFCOM.
Or report to Contact Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040, Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm or visit Reporting fraud and cyber crime | Action Fraud
Most phone providers are part of a scheme that allows customers to report suspicious text messages for free by forwarding it to 7726. If you forward a text to 7726, your provider can investigate the origin of the text and arrange to block or ban the sender, if it’s found to be malicious.
Read Google’s official advice on reporting spam.
If 7726 doesn’t work, you can find out how to report a text message by contacting your phone provider.
Report a scam text using a screenshot or screen recording
You can also take a screenshot or screen recording of the text message and send it to us at report@phishing.gov.uk