Woman lost £100 in airport drop-off charge scam

A West Sussex woman is warning others to be wary after losing £100 while attempting to pay for an airport drop-off charge.

Rosemary Williams, 72, said she feared she fell victim to a scam after transferring funds to an account later revealed to be unrelated to Gatwick Airport.

She said she was told over the phone by a separate company, Car Parking Hub, that she had to pay a penalty fee for not paying the charge within 20 minutes.

The firm which Ms Williams paid said it had begun the refund process.

Gatwick Airport passengers have until midnight the following day to pay the drop-off fee, which is £7. It advises passengers to go through its official website to pay the charge.

Ms Williams, from West Hoathly, near East Grinstead, had dropped her friend off at the airport at 07:30 BST. A few hours later, she attempted to pay the fee, she said.

She said she was unable to enter her car registration into a website, believing it was the official one. That website has now been taken down.

Ms Williams returned to the search engine page and found a phone number to call.

She said she was told she must pay a penalty fine as she "did not pay within 15 to 20 minutes", and that the "terms and conditions had changed on 15 April".

"I was furious. All logic went out the window because I was so cross," she said.

"I thought, 'I must get this paid, otherwise I'm going to be fined more money'."

She added: "I'm a pensioner - £100 is food for a week or two. And if they've done this to other people too, that's the top and bottom of it."

Gatwick Airport has confirmed it has not received the £100 paid by Ms Williams. It said that any website claiming a fee needed to be paid sooner than midnight the next day was likely to be fraudulent.

The phone number Ms Williams had called was a sponsored link and associated to the website gatewick.carparkinghub.co.uk.

The website's link contains a spelling error of 'gatewick' instead of 'Gatwick'.

Gatwick Airport said it was aware of some fraudulent websites which claim to be official payment channels for airport drop-off charges.

"Our teams work diligently to identify and report these websites when they appear, and ensure they are taken down swiftly," a spokesperson said.

Car Parking Hub said it had initiated the refund process. Ms Williams has not yet received her money back.

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