LEE BOYCE :Lock up the imposters preying on our mobile phones

‘Hello Jordan. It’s Dad.’ Those were the first words I uttered to my best friend a few years ago after he called his cell phone.

For 30 seconds he thought I was his sweet daddy.

The reason? Although I had called him from my own mobile, I had ‘spoofed’ his landline number at home so that the words ‘daddy’ appeared on his screen as the caller.

Before you start worrying about me being a money mail editor by day and a crook by night, rest assured this was just an experiment.

You see, I was invited to the London HQ by Barclays to see how easy it can be to spoof a phone number.

All Barclays had to do was find readily available software online and type in the number I wanted to “spoof”—Jordan’s father—and voilà.

Both Jordan and I were a little shocked to say the least. He couldn’t understand how I had managed to get his cell phone to ring as if it were his father’s.

And I walked out of London’s Canary Wharf, terrified of how easy it is for fraudsters to impersonate a bank, the police, the taxpayer, your telecom provider or, in fact, whoever they please.

These spoofing criminals are often part of organized crime groups, with slick scripts to read from and a bucketful of common sense.

When you add it all up — the technology, the script, the insight, the teamwork — it’s no wonder it’s so hard for victims of vicious impersonation scams to distinguish between a scammer and real bank employees.

Credit who deserves it – a Metropolitan Police-led investigation into one of the biggest spoofing websites last week shone a light on this terrible scourge on society.

They have shut down one of the largest spoofing websites and made arrests public.

It’s the first sign for scammers that the net is finally closing in.

So today we’re asking Money Mail readers to help the Met with its questions. The police need all the firepower to put these heartless crooks behind bars.

Write to us at Money Mail and we will pass your information on to the authorities in confidence. Or better yet, you can go straight to Action Fraud and report what happened to you step by step.

If you’re still out of pocket due to fraud, there’s no excuse to procrastinate – you may even find it helps you get your money back – even if you fell victim to a ‘spoofing’ crook a long time ago , please contact the police .

Unfortunately, as the Met told us this week, shutting down spoofing websites is like a blow; as soon as they break one, another one pops up.

So your help is essential to send a clear message to these despicable scammers: committing financial fraud means time inside.

Park plague

Private parking companies drive us around the bend with their habit of handing out fines like confetti. And the plague just keeps on spreading.

In the past year, no less than 30,000 parking fines per day were sent to beleaguered motorists.

Of course we need restrictions to prevent parking becoming free for everyone, where no one can park near their home or the train station.

But on the other hand, the rules and regulations shouldn’t unfairly punish drivers or make people afraid to drive into town because it’s so hard to avoid a fine.

In the past five years, Mrs. B and I have received three parking fines. We appealed all three and all three were overturned.

In one example, we parked in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, on our way home from a day in nearby Holland-on-Sea.

I typed the license plate number into the machine and stuck the ticket in the windshield – it wasn’t until later that I received a charge in the mail.

I had already thrown the card away. I still had to pay the £60 fine even though I had paid by card so I had proof of the transaction.

I appealed through POPLA – an independent appeals service – with the evidence and as if by magic it was written off. It is high time for a tough approach to the long-winded appeal procedure for parking fines.

Motorists who obey the rules have had enough of these locusts.

l.boyce@dailymail.co.uk