A man has revealed how he was scammed with a fake letter from the sheriff claiming he owed £617 for an unpaid parking fine.
Paul Szczerbakowicz, from Leeds, admitted the letter looked real but fortunately questioned its validity and emailed the company.
When they refused to tell him what the parking charge was until he made payment, he knew it was a scam.
Speaking to Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley on This Morning, Paul claimed he was threatened with coming to his house and even advised to “call the police” to “keep the peace”.
He said: ‘They sent a letter to my address which included the registration of my car saying I owed £617 for a parking fine and that I had seven days to pay or they would come to my address and force entry.
Paul Szczerbakowicz, from Leeds, revealed he was scammed with a fake letter from the sheriff claiming he owed £670 for an unpaid parking fine.
“I was confused because I’m good with things like parking tickets, and to get a sheriff’s letter you first have to skip six or seven other letters and I wasn’t aware of any parking tickets, but it seemed real.
‘When I started looking at the details, the company seemed to be a real company. The person who signed it looked like a real sheriff.
As Paul took his time investigating whether the letter was real, the charges began to pile up, causing even more concern.
He said: “I emailed them to ask what the parking charge was and they replied that they wouldn’t tell me until I had made a payment, which made me think this might be a scam.”
“They then sent another email to escalate it, saying they were going to be present in the next five days and actually advised me to call a police officer to keep the peace while they arrived too.”
He said it was discouraging because they were “using terms like ‘forcible entry’ and ‘high court’.”
“They look like real law 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 advised him to ignore the letter.
Paul said: “Although the last email they sent me said they would be here in the next five days, I didn’t reply to that Emil and never heard from them again.”
Russell Hamblin-Boone, chief executive of CIVEA, said the word sheriff is used as slang in the law enforcement industry, so it would never appear in any formal document (pictured: the fraudulent sheriff’s letter).
Speaking to Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley on This Morning, Paul claimed he was threatened with coming to his house and even advised to “call the police” to “keep the peace”.
Russell Hamblin-Boone, executive director of CIVEA, said the word sheriff is used as slang in the law enforcement industry, so it would never appear in any formal document.
He said: “Officially we are law enforcement officers or certified agents and normally you will never see anything in the text of the letter that talks about sheriffs.”
‘This scam is all based on fear, fear and urgency. What we’re doing here is trying to solve someone’s debt problem and people need time to do that.
‘By the way, to receive a parking charge notice we won’t break into your house. For more serious crimes perhaps bailiffs will do that, but certainly not for parking tickets or municipal tax debts. It’s all part of the scare tactics.
‘You will receive several letters about your parking fine and how it has increased. You’re not going to come across something unexpected that says, “We’re going to break into your house and take your stuff.”
Russell said these fear-mongering scams make the job of real law enforcement officers a little more difficult because it’s important for “people to interact” with them.
And he added: ‘It is important that people interact with us. This is how we solve people’s debts. Very often when an officer knocks on the door it is the first time we identify someone who is vulnerable and we can report him to the council so that he can get the social support he needs.’
Giving advice to people on how to spot bailiff scams, he said that “law enforcement officers will have identification,” will “also have a body-worn video camera” and will not be “aggressive.”
He said: “They will explain to you what the situation is and they are here to help you solve your problem.”