FAKE FINES

The DVSA recently distributed an email, explaining: “We’re aware that some members of the public have received emails claiming to be from the DVSA Fixed Penalty Office which contains an attachment to a Fixed Penalty receipt. DVSA never sends fixed penalty notices to customers by email. We strongly advise anyone who receives any of these emails to delete the email without opening the attachment.”

Email messages containing fines as attachments usually contain a virus, so do not open them (see Phishing for more details). Sadly, the scammers haven’t restricted themselves solely to the internet. Parking fines from independent organisations have become a major problem and we have firsthand experience of this. We legally parked our ex-project Audi A3 in a private car park, which was used every week without any problems, only to find a parking ticket attached on one occasion when we returned to the vehicle (we had parked in the same spot for several months without any problems and even checked with the parking attendant). We were visiting an organisation that regularly had to rescind these fines, so they kindly offered to do this for us. It took seven months for the fine to be cancelled, which was issued to the owner of the car at the time: editor Martyn Knowles! He wasn’t happy!