Warning to drivers over parking ticket scandal at popular holiday destination – it could cost you
DRIVERS are being warned after a huge parking ticket scam has been spotted happening at a popular holiday destination for Brits.
The dodgy scandal has tricked unlucky car owners in Toulouse, France.
Fraudulent parking tickets are being left under windscreen wipers like normal officers would, and claim a €35 fine needs to be paid for illegal parking.
The made-up price is also said to rise to €135 if it’s not paid within 48 hours.
The ticket has caused outrage as its scarily similar to a real fine in terms of look and execution.
It asks people to pay the fine by scanning a QR code on the form, which takes them to a website so they can pay.
This website has been labelled an “almost perfect replica” of the official government website, according to La Depeche.
Bad parkers usually pay fines on the official antai.gouv.fr site that has a section for people to pay their fine by adding their bank details.
It’s caused so many drivers to get caught out and tricked into paying for the phony fine that the French Police has urged people to be careful.
Elsewhere in France, there’s been reports of a very similar scam that involves a text being sent out asking drivers to pay a parking fine on the exact same fraudulent website.
According to reports the scammers aren’t focusing on a certain area in Toulouse but instead the whole city.
Romain, who was targeted by the scam artists said: “On Thursday evening, I parked my car in the Saint-Aubin district. When I got back, four hours later, I noticed a small piece of paper under my windscreen wipers.
“The ticket also had the French flag and motto on it… it’s disturbing (how close it looks to a real ticket).”
The flag and motto is the same logo found on most official government documents, known as the Marianne symbol.
Romain cleverly noticed the wrong website URL was used as the fake website used antai-gouv-contrav.com instead of the correct ending.
After realizing the “bizarre” error Romain said: “I called the municipal police to find out if I’d really received a ticket.
“According to the officer, it was all a scam. If you pay, the money goes into someone else’s bank account.”
The €35 fine doesn’t seem that impressive to steal at first but this is just the first part of the complex scam.
Scammers will use a fake ticket to get people’s complete card details online, and then call the person impersonating their bank.
The fraudsters then ask you extra questions that they’ll need to get complete unlimited access to your accounts before moving all of your money out or locking the account.
Earlier this year, a similar scam happened in Britain but with parking machines.
Drivers were warned to “keep their eyes peeled” over the new car parking scam that aims to steal card details and cash using a cunning QR code.
At the machines where you pay for parking a sneaky fraudster had stuck there own code on it in a bid to fleece unsuspecting victims.