I got scammed with a bailiff letter claiming I owed a parking fine (2024)

A man has revealed how he was scammed with a fake bailiff letter claiming he owed £617 on an unpaid parking fine.

Paul Szczerbakowicz, from Leeds, admitted the letter looked real but luckily he questioned its validity and emailed the company.

When they refused to tell him what the parking charge was for until he made a payment he knew it was a scam.

Speaking toBen Shephard and Cat Deeley on This Morning, Paul claimed they threatened to come around to his house and even advised him to 'call the police' to 'keep the peace'.

He said: 'They sent me a letter to my home address which included my car registration saying I owed £617 for a parking ticket and I had seven days to pay or they would come to my address and force entry.

'I was confused because I am good with things like parking tickets, and to get a bailiff letter you have to miss six or seven other letters first and I wasn't aware of any parking ticket, but it did look real.

'When I started looking at the detailsthe company seemed to be a real company. The person who signed it seemed to be a real bailiff.’

While Paul took his time to investigate if the letter was real the charges started to mount up which caused even more concern.

He said: 'I sent them an email to ask what this parking charge was and they replied saying they wouldn't tell me until I had made a payment, which made me think this could be a scam.

'They then sent another email ramping it, up saying they were going to be around in the next five days and they actually advised me to call a police officer to keep the peace while they came around as well.'

He said that it was daunting because they were 'using terms like "forced entry" and "high court".'

'They do come across as real enforcement officers,' he added.

'After the second or third email I started to think this wasn't right because they refused to tell me what the parking charge was.'

Paul said he started Googling fake Bailiff scams and came across a company called(CIVEA) The Civil Enforcement Association who said they were aware of the scam and they advised him to ignore the letter.

Paul said: 'Even though the last email they sent me said they would be around in the next five days, I didn't respond to that emil and I have never heard anything from them again.'

Russell Hamblin-Boone, who isChief Executive Officer of CIVEA, said the word bailiff is used as slang in theenforcement industry, therefore it would never be on any formal documents.

He said: 'Officially we are enforcement agents or certificated enforcement agents and typically you will never see anything in the text of the letter that talks about bailiffs.

'This scam is all based on fear, fear and urgency. What we are doing here is trying to sort out somebody's debt problem and people need time to do that.

'By the way, for a parking charge notice we won't be breaking into your home. For more serious offences maybe bailiffs will do that, but certainly not for parking tickets ot council tax debt. It's all part of the scare tactics.

'You are going to get several letters about your parking ticket and how it has been escalated. You're not going to get something out of the blue saying: "We are breaking into your home and taking away your things".'

Russell said these fearmongering scams make real enforcement agents' jobs that bit more difficult because it's important that 'people engage' with them.

He added: 'It's important people engage with us. That's how we get people's debts sorted. Very often, the knock on the door by an enforcement agent is the first time we have identified someone who is vulnerable and we can report them to the council so they can get the welfare support they need.'

Giving advice to people on how to spot bailiff scams, he said 'enforcement agents will have ID', they will have 'a body worn video camera as well' and they won't be 'aggressive'.

He said: 'They will be explaining what the situation is and they are here to help you sort out your problem.'

Ben ShephardITVLeedsCat Deeley