RIDE-CT – Classic Cars Celebrating Classic Cars in Connecticut
WETHERSFIELD, CT – The threatening text received last weekend, purportedly from the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, warned that a “traffic violation associated with your account remains unresolved.”
It further noted that if “full payment” was not made by the next day, I could face vehicle registration revocation and “suspension of driver’s license for a minimum of 30 days.”
That the text was bogus – and NOT from the DMV – was obvious from the get-go as it arrived with a “Maybe Spam” notation at the top and displayed a phone number with a 310 area code, which is assigned to the Los Angeles area.
Knowing that I hadn’t received a traffic citation of any kind in years, I ignored the text but quickly wondered if other recipients had actually been fooled. A call to the DMV revealed that the state agency has been hearing from concerned drivers.
In fact, a week ago, the DMV even put out a press release warning of the test scam that “that falsely claims recipients have an unpaid traffic citation and must pay immediately to avoid penalties.”
The DMV noted, “This message is not legitimate and was not sent by the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV does not send payment demands through text message.”
Recipients are advised, “not to click the link, do not reply, delete the test message (and) report the scam to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
