NORTH CAROLINA — The North Carolina Attorney General’s Office is warning residents of a new wave of scam text messages alleging to be from the NC Division of Motor Vehicles, threatening license suspension, fines, and other penalties.
The messages claim the recipient has an unpaid ticket and links at the bottom of the message to a website that appears to be official but is unassociated with either the state government or the NCDMV.
“This message is a scam,” Attorney General Jeff Jackson said. “The DMV does not collect traffic tickets by text, does not threaten people this way, and does not send links asking for payment.”
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Those who receive a potential scam message should look out for a fake web addresses — the example sent by the attorney general included a link that ended in “.cc” for the Cocos Islands near Australia as opposed to the official “.gov” — and false penalties like 35% service fee at toll booths and credit score damage.
“We are aware of multiple fraudulent text scams that have gone out requesting payment for fees, fines, or tolls,” NCDMV Commissioner Paul Tine said. “We will never request payment by text. If you get one of these texts, don’t respond. Instead, report it as spam and delete it.”
Those who receive the message can also file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Division at the Attorney General’s Office, contact the DMV directly, and are encouraged to block and delete the message and sender.
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