Don’t get fooled this April, avoid fake toll road scam texts from ‘AZDOT’ or ‘DMV’
Don’t get fooled this April, avoid fake toll road scam texts from ‘AZDOT’ or ‘DMV’
April Fool’s Day can be a fun, lighthearted day of pranks and practical jokes to add a little bit of laughter to your life. But there is one thing we can all agree that is most certainly not funny; scam texts.
We are all tired of unexpected texts saying you have won a prize, a package could not be delivered or worse a fee or fine is late, so click on the link. These look enticing or troubling enough, and people click the link to see what they have waiting for them.
Well, there are new texts going around that also look very concerning.
The text says that you have unpaid toll road fees and promises penalties unless you pay soon. Some of these scam texts claim to be private companies, while others mention the DOT and even AZDOT (we go by ADOT in second reference). Of course they provide a convenient link that you can copy into your web browser to handle the matter. The danger is in that link.
Clicking that link typically leads to a fake website intended to steal your personal and financial information.
Avoid links that you are not familiar with – long, convoluted links are a tipoff. These texts also should have other clues to tell you that it is not from the proper authorities, such as a phone number from another country, broken English, and spelling and grammar errors.
Finally, in Arizona the Motor Vehicle Division is the MVD, not the DMV. Yes, I know most people confuse the two and may not pay much attention, but this is a great example of why it is important to know the difference between the MVD, DMV or even the MVA in Maryland.
If you receive threatening texts that mention the DMV or even the MVD, do not feel the need to quickly respond or click on any links.
So what can you do about this text? One option is seeing it as a scam and deleting it. On an iPhone, you can hit Report Junk. As the FBI advises, make sure not to click on any links in a scam text.
You also can file a complaint with the federal Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov. You’ll need to include the phone number from which the text originated and the website listed within the text.
Additionally, you could contact the Arizona MVD through several secure and safe options. Customers can check their MVD accounts at azmvdnow.gov, call MVD at 602.255.0072 or visit an MVD office, where average wait times remain low, at approximately 12 minutes.
So now you can delete that text and get back to watching out for the harmless pranks like a note being taped to your back, or the very large plastic bug on your desk. After all, April 1, or April Fool’s Day, is supposed to be a fun break from the normal routine.