Residents of Hartlepool are being warned to be on their guard against a scam text message

Residents of Hartlepool are being warned to be on their guard against a scam text message relating to the payment of an outstanding parking Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).

Hartlepool Borough Council’s Parking Section and Trading Standards Team have received a number of complaints from local people, and the authority is keen to raise wider awareness of the scam.

Trading standards officials say 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 because vehicles are registered to addresses not phone numbers.

The scam text message states only that the recipient has received a PCN from “a local Council” and provides no further detail. It says that 28 days is allowed for payment of the fine, but warns it will increase by 50% if it isn’t paid within this time.

A web link embedded within the text takes recipients to a fake gov.uk page which states the fine is £20. No details are provided about the location of the alleged contravention when a vehicle’s registration number is entered. The payment page is live, however, and ready to take people’s money.

Trading standards officials are stressing that people should not click on the link in the message. They say that aside from taking people to a convincing copycat gov.uk webpage, the page could also have hidden spyware embedded within it that will be used to steal personal details.

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. Guidance on how to forward details to OFCOM

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