A delivery driver feared he had been handed a fine for driving in a bus lane before noticing a telltale sign which showed it was fake.
Tony Hill received a letter with Birmingham City Council’s logo saying his van had wandered into the lane in Old Walsall Road South back in November.
Initially alarmed, he started to suspect it was fake as the letter was not addressed to him, had no evidence of the alleged offence and was on a road which does not exist, BirminghamLive reports.
It also demanded the fine - £105 as he had not paid the initial £70 penalty - be paid over the phone.
When Mr Hill, 54, contacted the council they confirmed the fine was bogus.
He told Birmingham Live: “I pride myself on being a good driver. I've never had a parking ticket and it was 1996 when I last had penalty points. I don't even know what a fine looks like.
"I always make sure I stay within the law so straight away, that raised my suspicions because I wouldn't have gone into a bus lane. I thought 'Is there a bus lane on Old Walsall Road?
"Is there an Old Walsall Road South? The dates are crazy because if it happened in November why would it take six months?
“She went away and spoke to her supervisor and she said she has not heard anything about this before so it was a scam, a new scam.
"I put it on Facebook and a couple of people said they had received them too. One person messaged me and said they had actually paid because he used the road a lot and did not even think about it. He is now contacting his card payments.”
When Mr Hill posted the letter on community Facebook groups, he learned others had been taken in by the fraud.
Mr Hill has reported the matter to Action Fraud too.
Birmingham City Council has warned the public to be vigilant against scams on their website.
A spokesman said: “We’d advise anyone unsure about any correspondence to check our website for the advice there and if still concerned to then contact us to make sure about any such letters.”
