Thought it might be genuine, then I realised the DVSA doesn't service Northern Ireland. Also it doesn't say where the location was. But this is what the website looks like, it looks very genuine so I thought I'd share in case anyone gets the message and isn't sure.
by TheCatholicPacifist
38 comments
How do you know what the website looks like without going to the site in the link? Also doubt UK government is doing German domains.
The URL is pretty dodgy. The fact that it’s not a gov.uk domain suggests to me that it’s a cloned page.
Fake for sure
No mate that’s real, just look at the URL. You clearly parked on a street in Belfast and part of your car was blocking Germany.
Lol. Love ‘your car will be banned from driving’. Not you. The car. Won’t be able to drive itself anywhere.
The message spelling and grammar is incorrect. The date is in the wrong format. The link and destination do not match. Moreover the DVSA does not govern NI. Completely a fake, block and report.
My mum received the exact same text as well today. She doesn’t drive, let alone left the house this morning. These scams are relentless.
Got this myself yesterday, can’t believe you actually clicked that link tho that’s mental đÂ
Wanna buy a bridge? I have an uncle who’s a rich prince in Nigeria….Â
Also cars don’t get banned from driving as they don’t drive, people drive. This is obviously a scam, report, delete, block number and forget about it.
P
Screams dodgy. The Url alone is terrible. If you have a penalty notice it comes in the post to the registered address on your licence. definitely not via text message.
Got one too I just blocked the number and reported it as spam.
* “Dvsa”: should be DVSA, and anyway DVSA doesn’t cover NI * “2024/09/20”: that format isn’t used by any government agency I’m aware of * “,Your”: should be “, your” * “Your car may be banned”: doesn’t make sense * “license”: should be “licence” * “Check”, should be “check” * missing article after “pay” * Dodgy shortened URL that leads to a non-.gov.uk URL
diagnosis: scam
Hello, it’s me the DVSA. Please pay me now!
“.de” is a german domain, but if you received any parking fines it would be in the post or from a gov.uk link, there would or should also be a picture of your vehicle as proof, my siblings have received parking fines in the post which contained a photo of their car.
The “ÂŁ20” is just to make you think “It’s only ÂŁ20 I’ll just pay it” but the card details you enter will be stored for them to use.
It’s common for a scammer to add your card details to a digital wallet, allowing them to utilise contact less payment in any shop of their choice, this also makes it harder for you to stop it as well as get your money back, the bank/credit card company will argue that you used contactless payment.
Scam
Oh, they’ve got you there.
Got the same thing lol, knew immediately cause the link was stupid. Oh and I also don’t drive đ
It’s easy to be facetious about these things because for most people it’s very obvious. But OP I’m going to tell you how to spot fake texts/emails like this in future using the example you’ve shared here and how to spot the red flags that give it away regardless of how legitimate the website design looks.
Firstly, what you have have here is a standard “Phishing” attempt. Phishing is a specific type of scam where a bad actor tries to appear as a legitimate company/person in order to scam money or details from you. Scammers try to replicating
**The red flags in the text message are the following:**
1. (I can’t see it in your image but I know it won’t have it) The sender does not have a Sender ID. This is when the text message has a name rather than a number displayed (even though they aren’t in your contacts) 2. The link in the text has a german top-level domain (.de). Any UK, or other country’s official government, would not use the domain address designated for another country. The website “qrco.de” is also a link shortener service. Official government entities typically don’t use those. The scammer used it to obscure the real web address they are taking you to. 3. DVSA do not handle parking fines. 4. Parking fines are based on the car (not your licence) and they don’t list your car Reg Plate or the date and time of the infraction on the text and **they ask YOU to enter your own licence plate** which they would have on their own records if it was legitimate. 5. They don’t present a PCN number on the text – this is the actual thing your would be using to look up a parking fine record. They don’t even show you one until after you gone onto their website and entered your Reg No. 6. Much less obvious, but the government does not send out text messages for parking charges like this. You will always receive a letter in the post from whatever parking management company the local council have put in place. 7. “2024/09/20” is not the standard UK date format.
**The red flags on the website are:**
1. The URL/Web Address used: “parkinggovgbi.top”. This is not an official government website of which most typically will use a “____.gov.uk” address. Again, the “.top” top-level domain is not a UK (eg co.uk, org.uk) or official gov.uk one 2. Just like the text – They don’t have the car reg number (you had to fill it in) They also don’t have any location listed nor the time of the infraction. 3. They don’t have any photos of your car committing the infraction (which I believe is actually a legal requirement for processing a fine, correct me if I’m wrong).
The sad thing remains that these continue to get scatter-gunned out because they work and because SMS as a platform doesnât easily allow them to be blocked reliably. Theyâre deliberately bad grammar to catch those more likely to be gullible. Itâs semi-nerd level knowledge to know â.deâ is German and pretty hard to spot unless you know what youâre looking for. If you fall into pool A, youâre unlikely to fall into pool B.
Coupled with the fact that legitimate organisations canât get this sort of communication right, weâre a long way from this sort of scam going away.
The date is the wrong format too. Reply with a ‘your da sells Avon’
I literally just got the exact same message today. Definitely a scam
Itâs obviously a phishing scam.
1. You owe money 2. It needs to be paid right now. How scary!! 3.You donât pay immediately, there will be instant repercussions 4. Cluck this link to an overseas domain 5. Enter payment details or face threat of action
Plus grammar, spelling, date etc. as obviously scammy as they come
I got the same text. The dead giveaway off the bat was it came from a random mobile number. Block/delete. Never click a text link.
Bruh
Why is nobody saying about the .de obviously a scam
I really wish people would stop being so gullible.
I know scammers are good at what they do, but at some point people need to accept personal responsibility (I don’t mean vulnerable people).
How many more warnings do people need about not clicking on links from texts/emails (or giving info out to strangers over the phone) if they’re not expecting anything to have been sent from a legitimate source and for a confirned reason?
If in doubt, contact the company and ask them if they it, but for goodness sake
STOP CLICKING ON LINKS FROM UNSOLICITED SENDERS!!!!
âYour car may be banned from drivingâ lmao..
Who falls for this illiterate bull shit?
âIt looks very genuineâ
jesus wept
omg you actually clicked on the link…… the amount of internet illiteracy these days makes me ill. like are you for real? i’m sorry but not clicking links you’re randomly sent is internet 101.
you’re the kind of people that keep me up at night worrying about my nervous little mother clicking on every fuckin thing she’s sent.
like genuinely, use some critical computer skills here. everything here (northern ireland) is .com, co.uk, or .gov. This is .de. Now ask yourself why is a GERMAN domained website emailing you about a car in NORTHERN IRELAND???
38 comments
How do you know what the website looks like without going to the site in the link? Also doubt UK government is doing German domains.
The URL is pretty dodgy. The fact that it’s not a gov.uk domain suggests to me that it’s a cloned page.
Fake for sure
No mate that’s real, just look at the URL. You clearly parked on a street in Belfast and part of your car was blocking Germany.
Lol. Love ‘your car will be banned from driving’. Not you. The car. Won’t be able to drive itself anywhere.
The message spelling and grammar is incorrect. The date is in the wrong format. The link and destination do not match. Moreover the DVSA does not govern NI. Completely a fake, block and report.
My mum received the exact same text as well today. She doesn’t drive, let alone left the house this morning. These scams are relentless.
Got this myself yesterday, can’t believe you actually clicked that link tho that’s mental đÂ
Wanna buy a bridge? I have an uncle who’s a rich prince in Nigeria….Â
Also cars don’t get banned from driving as they don’t drive, people drive. This is obviously a scam, report, delete, block number and forget about it.
P
Screams dodgy. The Url alone is terrible. If you have a penalty notice it comes in the post to the registered address on your licence. definitely not via text message.
Dunno it looks legit to me
https://preview.redd.it/ysmzbostqypd1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=150bb91928ccea5ab4354c1fd19e8ee760418c0c
For fuck sake.
STOP clicking on links in texts unless you’re expecting a text with a link (prior arrangement) or expecting a specific delivery etc.
Just don’t do it. Ever.
If it isn’t from a known sender, block the number. Then delete the text. Report the number if you think it’s worthwhile.
That URL is fake – it’s not gov.uk
I got the same text. Definitely a scam. Came from a regular 078 number and the link was sketchy as fuck. Didn’t even bother clicking on it.
Also report (forward) the text to 7726 – this actually does help protect others from receiving the same scams.
[https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phishing-scams/report-scam-text-message](https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phishing-scams/report-scam-text-message)
It’s balleeks.
https://preview.redd.it/1843lra0sypd1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c426c91b3401bce2657d5eeab507d52fa77ac134
Got one too I just blocked the number and reported it as spam.
* “Dvsa”: should be DVSA, and anyway DVSA doesn’t cover NI
* “2024/09/20”: that format isn’t used by any government agency I’m aware of
* “,Your”: should be “, your”
* “Your car may be banned”: doesn’t make sense
* “license”: should be “licence”
* “Check”, should be “check”
* missing article after “pay”
* Dodgy shortened URL that leads to a non-.gov.uk URL
diagnosis: scam
Hello, it’s me the DVSA. Please pay me now!
“.de” is a german domain, but if you received any parking fines it would be in the post or from a gov.uk link, there would or should also be a picture of your vehicle as proof, my siblings have received parking fines in the post which contained a photo of their car.
The “ÂŁ20” is just to make you think “It’s only ÂŁ20 I’ll just pay it” but the card details you enter will be stored for them to use.
It’s common for a scammer to add your card details to a digital wallet, allowing them to utilise contact less payment in any shop of their choice, this also makes it harder for you to stop it as well as get your money back, the bank/credit card company will argue that you used contactless payment.
Scam
Oh, they’ve got you there.
Got the same thing lol, knew immediately cause the link was stupid. Oh and I also don’t drive đ
It’s easy to be facetious about these things because for most people it’s very obvious. But OP I’m going to tell you how to spot fake texts/emails like this in future using the example you’ve shared here and how to spot the red flags that give it away regardless of how legitimate the website design looks.
Firstly, what you have have here is a standard “Phishing” attempt. Phishing is a specific type of scam where a bad actor tries to appear as a legitimate company/person in order to scam money or details from you. Scammers try to replicating
**The red flags in the text message are the following:**
1. (I can’t see it in your image but I know it won’t have it) The sender does not have a Sender ID. This is when the text message has a name rather than a number displayed (even though they aren’t in your contacts)
2. The link in the text has a german top-level domain (.de). Any UK, or other country’s official government, would not use the domain address designated for another country. The website “qrco.de” is also a link shortener service. Official government entities typically don’t use those. The scammer used it to obscure the real web address they are taking you to.
3. DVSA do not handle parking fines.
4. Parking fines are based on the car (not your licence) and they don’t list your car Reg Plate or the date and time of the infraction on the text and **they ask YOU to enter your own licence plate** which they would have on their own records if it was legitimate.
5. They don’t present a PCN number on the text – this is the actual thing your would be using to look up a parking fine record. They don’t even show you one until after you gone onto their website and entered your Reg No.
6. Much less obvious, but the government does not send out text messages for parking charges like this. You will always receive a letter in the post from whatever parking management company the local council have put in place.
7. “2024/09/20” is not the standard UK date format.
**The red flags on the website are:**
1. The URL/Web Address used: “parkinggovgbi.top”. This is not an official government website of which most typically will use a “____.gov.uk” address. Again, the “.top” top-level domain is not a UK (eg co.uk, org.uk) or official gov.uk one
2. Just like the text – They don’t have the car reg number (you had to fill it in) They also don’t have any location listed nor the time of the infraction.
3. They don’t have any photos of your car committing the infraction (which I believe is actually a legal requirement for processing a fine, correct me if I’m wrong).
The sad thing remains that these continue to get scatter-gunned out because they work and because SMS as a platform doesnât easily allow them to be blocked reliably. Theyâre deliberately bad grammar to catch those more likely to be gullible. Itâs semi-nerd level knowledge to know â.deâ is German and pretty hard to spot unless you know what youâre looking for. If you fall into pool A, youâre unlikely to fall into pool B.
Coupled with the fact that legitimate organisations canât get this sort of communication right, weâre a long way from this sort of scam going away.
Posted recently https://www.reddit.com/r/northernireland/s/Z4QsjcMcJV
How do you ban a car from driving??
I got it too
The date is the wrong format too. Reply with a ‘your da sells Avon’
I literally just got the exact same message today. Definitely a scam
Itâs obviously a phishing scam.
1. You owe money
2. It needs to be paid right now. How scary!!
3.You donât pay immediately, there will be instant repercussions
4. Cluck this link to an overseas domain
5. Enter payment details or face threat of action
Plus grammar, spelling, date etc. as obviously scammy as they come
I got the same text. The dead giveaway off the bat was it came from a random mobile number. Block/delete. Never click a text link.
Bruh
Why is nobody saying about the .de obviously a scam
I really wish people would stop being so gullible.
I know scammers are good at what they do, but at some point people need to accept personal responsibility (I don’t mean vulnerable people).
How many more warnings do people need about not clicking on links from texts/emails (or giving info out to strangers over the phone) if they’re not expecting anything to have been sent from a legitimate source and for a confirned reason?
If in doubt, contact the company and ask them if they it, but for goodness sake
STOP CLICKING ON LINKS FROM UNSOLICITED SENDERS!!!!
âYour car may be banned from drivingâ lmao..
Who falls for this illiterate bull shit?
âIt looks very genuineâ
jesus wept
omg you actually clicked on the link…… the amount of internet illiteracy these days makes me ill. like are you for real? i’m sorry but not clicking links you’re randomly sent is internet 101.
you’re the kind of people that keep me up at night worrying about my nervous little mother clicking on every fuckin thing she’s sent.
like genuinely, use some critical computer skills here. everything here (northern ireland) is .com, co.uk, or .gov. This is .de. Now ask yourself why is a GERMAN domained website emailing you about a car in NORTHERN IRELAND???
i’m losing years here guys istg