A motorist who was scammed after attempting to pay for parking in Bury town centre has issued a warning over “absolutely legitimate” looking websites.

Debbie Thomas, 52, mistakenly used a fraudulent website masquerading as cashless parking application PaybyPhone when attempting to pay for a ticket at Trinity Street car park.

The nurse, who is from Rochdale, searched PaybyPhone instead of downloading its app and entered her card details on a website which she said looked  “absolutely legitimate” while in a hurry to get to an appointment.

Debbie said she did not suspect the website had not been the real thing until she was contacted by the fraud team at her bank.

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She said: “I checked to see if I had enough cash but I didn’t and as we were in a hurry I just Googled PaybyPhone.

“I’d had the app in the past but not on this phone, I Googled PaybyPhone and clicked the link and it took me to a different site, I entered my details and it took me to my bank account."

Debbie said she initially thought her payment had not been successful as she was repeatedly taken back to a previous webpage while attempting to enter her details.

She said only £1 was taken from her account, which was not enough to cover the cost of parking, and the website did not ask her to enter the car park’s reference code.

After struggling to use the site, she then downloaded the PaybyPhone app and paid for the ticket. However, the next day she was contacted by the fraud team at her bank who asked her to contact them immediately.

She said: “I got up the next morning and there was an alert from my bank, the bank said it was a fraudulent site that I’d gone on, not Pay By Phone. They cancelled my card and I got a new one."

Thankfully, no further money was taken from Debbie’s account but her bank informed her that someone had attempted to make a number of payments with her details, including one for a £40 monthly gym membership and two other payments of £88 and £59.99.

She added: "[The website] looked absolutely legitimate, I had no reason to believe I wasn’t in the process of paying for my parking."

Despite eventually paying for parking through the real PayByPhone app, due to late payment she was left with a fine from Bury Council.

Debbie added: "It felt a bit mean, I’m not someone who would park in a car park and not pay, it was a genuine attempt to pay."

She said councils should do more to warn people about the risk of fraud while using car parking payment apps.

On its website, Pay by Phone say it is aware of fraudulent websites masquerading as PayByPhone and that it is "working with the relevant authorities to have these sites removed".

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The statement reads: "We are aware that fraudulent companies have been masquerading as PayByPhone on Google.

"These companies are using advertising to trick people into visiting a website that pretends to be the PayByPhone site. It is not.

"These sites then require you to register, then ask you for your credit or debit card details and charge you a subscription.

"PayByPhone does not provide any subscription service and we will never charge your card without your authorisation."

A spokesperson for Bury Council has advised Debbie to appeal the parking fine.