It’s a familiar scenario: you’ve parked in a strange city and when you return to the car a piece of paper smiles at you from afar – you’ve been caught. It has become common practice among drivers to pay the fines without comment. What do you want to make big? This is exactly what fraudsters know – but the police warn against being too naive and immediately complying with every traffic ticket.
The Berlin police wrote on They were distributed in large numbers in Marzahn last night. Our colleagues from the A32 have already driven several blocks to collect them.”
What is shown is a speeding ticket that initially appears real. It bears the Berlin Police logo, the correct address of the traffic department and no particularly noticeable spelling errors – at least in the first part. But after that things get a little strange. Sentences like “There was a fine of: 25 euros”, “Notice of violation: illegal parking” or “Signature of a police officer” would hardly appear on a real traffic ticket. The email address provided, which belongs to the Nürtingen police station in Baden-Württemberg, would never be used in letters from the Berlin police.
However, the fraudsters rely on no one paying too much attention to the print – and distract from the textual work. In the middle of the ticket you can see a huge QR code, which, according to Berlin police, leads to a portal through which you can transfer money. In their brief warning about the notes, the officials do not say which service provider the payment will be processed through or who the money will go to.
If the method proves to be a lucrative source of income for the fraudsters, it cannot be ruled out that the false traffic tickets will quickly leave Berlin’s borders and spread rapidly to other cities. It’s always worth taking a second look at a ticket.
If checking the notes on the window is too time-consuming for you, you can simply wait – because real traffic tickets always arrive by post at a later date.