Police in Santa Cruz, California, arrested a 19-year-old they say made fake parking tickets and put them on parked vehicles close to the seaside. The fake tickets had a QR code that victims may scan to “pay” the fraudulent citations.
The man put the false citations — which directed potential victims to a web site to pay a effective — on vehicles late Wednesday night time, mentioned Santa Cruz police.
Damian Vela, of Watsonville, California, was charged with illegal use of a pc system and tried fraud, police mentioned. According to a news launch from the division, when police spoke with Vela on Thursday, he denied receiving any funds.
Investigators have no idea what number of fake tickets the person placed on vehicles or what number of victims might have paid the bogus fines.
It’s simply the newest report of a scam associated to fake parking tickets. In current years, police departments across the nation — together with Washington, D.C., Pensacola, Florida and Jefferson City, Missouri, amongst others — have warned drivers to be cautious of scams involving parking tickets. Scams can contain e mail or textual content messages in addition to the type of fake tickets on vehicles that drivers in Santa Cruz discovered.
Christopher Elliott, a client advocate and writer of “How to be the World’s Smartest Traveler,” instructed CBS MoneyWatch in 2017 that know-how like handheld printers made parking scams simpler and drivers must be vigilant.
“There is a certain arbitrariness about parking tickets, and scammers take advantage of that,” mentioned Elliott. “You get a ticket on your windshield, and you’re likely to just pay it.”
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