On Your Side: Beware of fake parking tickets in downtown Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Someone is trying to get drivers to pay for fake traffic tickets in downtown Augusta.

The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office put out word Thursday that it learned of the scam.

What can you do to make sure you don’t fall victim to the scam?

After dinner in downtown Augusta, Kevin de i’Aigle and his friends found a fake parking ticket on one of their cars.

“I went to school in Savannah. I lived in New York for 28 years. I know what a parking ticket looks like. And this is clearly bogus,” he said.

He posted to social media, and from there, the post went viral, even getting the sheriff’s office to issue a warning about the scam.

The sheriff’s office says their tickets will have their information on them. Something de i’Aigle saw as a red flag right away.

“It’s very threatening. It says it could affect your license renewal, credit rating, but it doesn’t have any mention of any jurisdiction,” he said.

When they went to the website the fake ticket said to go to, it ended in dot com instead of dot gov, something the Better Business Bureau says is another red flag.

“They’re just trying to get your information and your credit card to charge you money. It’s concerning because you have a lot of people who are coming downtown, you know, older people. We have a lot of people coming into town the next few weeks for the Masters and so forth,” said de i’Aigle.

The Better Business Bureau says scammers will try to target you if you have an out-of-state tag. And to never pay with direct debit cards or apps like CashApp or Venmo.

Once you send that money, you can not get it back. If you need to pay for a citation, use a credit card, it’ll be easier to contest fraud charges later on.

If you have any questions, call deputies at 706-821-1000.

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