Scammers are targetting people trying to pay for parking by tampering with the machines then stealing their cards.
One local authority has now issued a warning after a number of reports of the scam.
The scheme sees a fraudster tamper with a machine so that those who try to park are forced to put in their car and card details.
The bank cards are then swallowed and latter collected by the thief.
Richmond council warned victims could lose thousands of pounds from their bank account within minutes of losing their card, reports The Mirror.
Councillor Alexander Ehmann said: "Until the criminals are caught please take extra care to be on guard against scammers and tell your friends and family, who might not have seen this warning message, to be careful too."
He added: "Please try to use contactless payments or cash at parking machines or use RingGo.
"If you think you might have fallen victim to this scam, contact your bank immediately to cancel your bank card."
The council added that it is impossible for a pay and display machine to swallow a bank card under normal circumstances - because cards can only be inserted part of the way into the payment slot.
A spokesman said drivers should be cautious if anyone approaches them when paying and should never insert a card into a parking machine when someone they don't know is present.
A similar scam was reported in Peterborough in 2019 with two drivers losing £700 and £530 after falling foul of the offence.
In both cases, victims had their cards taken by the machine just seconds after attempting to make a payment.
Police were told the victims were both approached by a man who claimed the machine was "not accepting cash".
