Be aware of fraudulent parking penalty notices

Parking Services have received reports of a "parking penalty" notice being sent to members of the public by text message - these messages are fraudulent and are not related to Penalty Change Notices (PCNs) issued by Great Yarmouth Council under Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) procedures.

Legally issued PCNs will involve an initial Notice being attached to a vehicle, and then written correspondence being sent by first class post to the home address of the vehicle Registered Keeper if the PCN hasn't been paid or cancelled within 28 days.  First contact regarding a PCN would never be sent by text message under CPE.

A text message may look like this example:

Parking Penalty Notice Issuing Authority: PCN Notice Number: AB123456789
Date Of Issue: Jun 27, 2025
Penalty Amount: £20
Online Payment: You can visit our official website to pay the parking penalty online. Enter the notice number and vehicle registration information to complete the payment process. This is the final notice to you. In case of persistent non-payment, legal proceedings may be initiated against you. This may lead to a county court judgement, which will have a negative impact on your credit rating.

The text message 'official website' link will be to a bogus website to trick you into payment or providing card details.

We would advise that the sender of the message is blocked and the message is deleted once reported to the Police.