Supposedly broken the speed limit in France - is this a scam?

[SchadenfreudePersonified]

DH has received a very official communication stating that we were clocked breaking the speed limit in France, and demanding a fixed penalty of €90. The vehicle details are correct.

We haven't been to France, and it most certainly wasn't us or our car. t the date we supposedly broke the speed limit we were actually in Scotland.

There is an "appeal" available apparently, but it involves giving a lot of personal details on the form - if these are scammers it is an open invitation to just steal our identities and empty our bank accounts!

Has anyone had anything similar happen? and if so, how did you deal with it?

It's got me worried out of all proportion to what it is as I am extremely stressed at the moment and can't seem to calm myself down. I'd really appreciate a bit of advice, or even a hand-hold. (Sorry for being wussy)

You don't even need to clone plates. You could sit on the dvla website inputting random number plates to verify it's a real car and getting make/model/colour. Not sure how you'd get the owners details though.

Fairy dust was the council letter genuine I.e. a cloned plate on the car which knocked down the lamp post or was the whole thing a scam?

Was there a photo on it? I know that the foreign speeding fines often have photos on them...

We had one at Easter. The form is in English but gives you a website that you can pay. If it looks like ours then there is the possibility of cloned plates or more likely they had a doggy photo!

Glad you reported it, we've had our plates cloned, it's common (was dartford crossing and congestion charge chasing me. Police were excellent!

The real ones have 3 pages, 3 different colors.

And they have a QR code for payment. You can download the Amendes.gouv app. See what happens when you do it that way.

That looks real I'm afraid.

Sorry but I think it is real and don't ignore it. Whilst the camera has either mis read your plate, or it has been cloned you will potentially have a problem if you do go to France in the same car. Also, if they are able to pursue you for the fine it won't be any different to any other debt so I would make contact

Here's one

Where as Wallywobbles document is in French the more recent documents are in English.

I would also ditto the advise of paying if you are ever thinking of going to France in the future.

Wallywobbles, I am not the OP. Was posting a picture of our recent Easter fine 😳 to show how it is in English and the layout.

I would also ditto the advise of paying if you are ever thinking of going to France in the future.

Why would they pay it if they weren't in France at the time of the incident?

My poor son in law had his plates cloned, the cloned plates were used on an identical car for a number of serious crimes in the north of the country. I would speak to the police for advice.

SoupDragon you are right - a case of doing to many things at the same time and not thinking while posting!

*too
(🙄 I give up!)
Good luck OP hope it all gets sorted

As you haven't been to France it's a scam. Don't worry about cloned plates etc as that's not your problem.

It's still a good idea to check with the CAB etc of course and they'll be pleased to be kept up to date with current fiddles.

Chill!

Not cloning, but we had a speeding ticket 6 months after we part-exchanged our car. Obviously the new owner hadn't updated the registration.

@TenDays . It is far ,easier likely to be a scam given that it was posted. Therefore the sender had to know the registration number of the car and request keeper details from DVLA!

It is that the number has been incorrectly transcribed (happens loads in the U.K. as well) or a car has been driving in France in cloned plates. Either way, ignoring it definitely isn't the course of action to take. Paying it isn't either

I'm not advising ignoring it, just the opposite; I recommended that the OP should take advice.

However, she shouldn't worry about paying anything as they weren't there. No need to stress about it.

www.antai.gouv.fr/?lang=en

I think you can appeal online here.

I've had a similar situation but live in France. I wasn't driving the car though. But I still ended up having to pay the fine and the majoration on the fine. Bringing it to 360€ if memory serves me correctly. You can dispute it. You can also contact them directly and I'm pretty sure they have an English service. What I wouldn't do is ignore it.

Photocopy it and send it to the chap below, asking whether it is real.
Attach your email address. This will also alert French authorities if it is a scam.

Police Attaché
French Embassy in the United Kingdom
58, Knightsbridge
SW1X 7JT London
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7073 1000 (switchboard)

Thank you all for your replies and advice.

DH is quite blasé about it, but I'm stressing. I've googled the forms online and they look similar to ours (but the ones online are in French, ours is in English)

Ours looks exactly like yours Bedofwool.

Wallywobbles - there were 3 pages, but two of them are green, The third is pink-ish so not all different colours. The fine goes up to €375 (i'd thought it was €135, but in my panic missed the last bit!). I'm with you - I'm very reluctant to ignore anything like this.

DH went to the police station as advised by CAB - they were totally uninterested. Said it was a scam and to ignore it, but not bothered re: cloning etc, despite what the CAB advice was

PatriciaHolm - thank you. We'll have a look at the link you provided tomorrow ( ab it late now - I'm ready for my bed).

I'm one of Nature's worrits I'm afraid and am living on my nerve ends at the moment.