Scam text messages from Washington state and Seattle agencies that don’t exist are targeting drivers with warnings of outstanding traffic tickets that could result in suspension of driving privileges and prosecution.
Messages received by GeekWire staffers have come from such fake agencies as the “Seattle Vehicle Administration” and the “Seattle WsDOT.” Others have received messages from the “Washington Department of Motor Vehicles.”
The messages cite city code 15C-16.003 and warn that records show an outstanding traffic ticket that must be dealt with in the coming days. For those who don’t take action, the sender threatens a number of consequences including having the driver reported to a “violation database.”
People are urged to pay up before “further legal trouble” and directed to open the message and click a link.
The state’s official — and very real — Department of Licensing posted about the messages on social media this week, calling them “obviously fake.” The international area code of the senders is one giveaway. The agency told people to “ignore or delete messages you suspect are fraudulent” and “never click on links in unsolicited emails and text messages.”
But the scam’s ability to confuse and scare drivers was on display at a state Department of Licensing office in Shoreline, Wash., on Tuesday.
While dozens of people waited more than an hour for normal business such as driver’s license renewals or to get their Real ID, I witnessed several people who made the trip and waited in line just to ask about the text messages. Some held their phones up to the clerk’s window asking, “Is this real?”
The agency rep reiterated in person what DOL is telling people online: ignore or delete.
The Washington State Department of Transportation is still warning drivers about scam messages related to the Good To Go! toll paying program. Scammers have been pretending for more than a year to be from a collections agency working on behalf of Good To Go!, the program that allows drivers to automatically pay fees for toll roads in Washington, such as SR 520.
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