27 August - Beware of scammers
It seems to be the season for scams. Yesterday I received
another email supposedly from a
Bonkers reader who has never phoned me saying he is unable to call at the moment
so would I email him instead. Hang on a mo’. Someone who has just started an
email conversation is asking me to start an email conversation.
I am continuing to assume it is a scam and that the reader’s email address has been compromised.
Some scammers use text as their form of communication. How do they get the phone
numbers? From a compromised commercial website presumably but at least mobiles allow for easy blocking. (So does my landline.)
Yesterday I received two identical text messages within
a minute of each other. They said I had incurred a parking fine and I must pay
immediately or have my driving license revoked. Log on to a ridiculously named website to pay the fine.
For the record I have rarely used my car over the past couple of months and only parked on friends’ front drives,
at Kwik Fit to have a nail taken out of a tyre, at a Hyundai garage to book the next
service and MOT, and a couple of times for a few minutes in Lidl which allows 90 minutes
free. I have given up on Sainsbury’s. Rip off merchants.
It is many years since I parked on a public road or in a Council car park; I avoid them
totally and I’m probably a major cause of the decline of the High Street. Blame Councils not me.
I have seriously considered selling my car but reluctant to allow Labour
politicians to do away with my Freedom of Movement within the UK. I will not succumb to their Commie ambitions.
If you click on the scammer’s web link a mobile produces a passable immitation of
the Government’s website. Does gov.uk really provide a link to all Councils’ PCN payment pages?
On a PC the web page is more obviously fake. For me it didn’t expand to fill my screen and has a black border instead.
So my lesson of the day is beware of scams. I would hope that the PCN impersonator would raise
suspicions with most people but I have known intelligent people who have very nearly fallen for something similar.
Use the Council’s postcode? They haven’t even told me which Council is supposed to have issued the PCN.