Scam texts say Virginians owe DMV cash. You don't.
Why it matters: Between bogus job offers, unsolicited homebuying queries and nonstop political announcements, it's a wonder any actual personal communication gets through to our phones.
Driving the news: In the latest scam, a fraudster posing as the DMV texts that the recipient owes money for an outstanding traffic ticket and they need to pay up immediately or risk penalties, according to a warning from the DMV.
The penalty, per the scammer, is a suspended driver's license and vehicle registration, a ding on one's credit report, possible criminal prosecution and, bizarrely, a 35% "toll booth" service fee.
Virginians should not click on any links in the text or reply to the sender, the DMV says.
Instead, recipients should use the "report junk" feature on their phone or forward it to 7726 (SPAM).
What they're saying: " The DMV will never send you text messages demanding payment for fines or fees," DMV commissioner Gerald Lackey said in a statement. "We urge our customers to be vigilant and avoid sending your personal information via text."
Flashback: Unpaid traffic ticket messages are the latest text scam to hit Virginians. In March, there was one demanding money for unpaid tolls or E-Z Pass balances.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Forbes
Delete Any Message On Your Smartphone If You See This Word
American smartphone users are under attack from billions of malicious text messages courtesy of organized criminal gangs in China. Whether unpaid tolls, undelivered packages or DMV motoring offenses, the theme is the same. An urgent threat with a payment link that directs to a fake website which steals your financial details. Proofpoint warns that 'there was a 2,534% increase' in such threats last year, and nothing has changed since. Guardio has just detected 'a new wave of DMV scam texts hitting the U.S. In just the past week, its team has spotted a 56.8% rise in DMV scam texts, with August 11 marking the peak so far.' While it's easy to avoid these malicious texts if you know to beware a particular lure. Unpaid tolls and DMV offenses have generated a tidal wave of publicity, and most Americans will have seen at least some of this by now. But these lures can be easily changed. The one thing that doesn't change, though, is the use of a malicious link. Sometimes that's enough to raise a red flag. While there are clever ruses, where attackers design URLs that use dashes to form a '[.TEXT]-COM' which might trick a cursory glance into thinking it's a genuine .COM address. But usually it's much easier to quickly detect the issue and determine the text is a malicious fake (1,2,3). In the most recent 'Ranking of TLDs by Phishing Domains,' from May through July this year, the top level domain (TLD) that stands out more than any other is .XIN. And URLs under that TLD are a driving force behind many of these attacks. It's not the most popular TLD, but it's the one that's almost guaranteed to be a scam. Every single time. Almost 22,000 of the near 50,000 .XIN top level domains are 'phishing domains.' That compares to just 35,000/1,350,000 for .VIP or 115,000/4,500,000 for .TOP, two other phishers' favorites. Nothing comes close to .XIN when it comes to its relative threat. That's why this TLD tops the phishing domain score with 4421 versus 16 for .COM. .XIN is a Chinese domain operated out of Hong Kong. The word means 'new' and claims to be aimed at Chinese tech innovators. Instead it's the most obviously and openly dangerous TLD in the world. If you see .XIN in any link in an email, social media post or especially a text, delete the message right away — certainly never click it. 'For many of us,' Proofpoint says, 'our smartphone contains the keys to both our personal and professional lives. Unsurprisingly, cybercriminals have recognized this is a two-for-one opportunity and increased their targeting of mobile devices. When it comes to attacking users across multiple devices, URL-based threats are the perfect tool.'
San Francisco Chronicle
16 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
How this Bay Area city is battling a goose invasion — and 300 pounds of poop a day
Welcome to Foster City, home to 24 parks and more than 160 acres of open space that collects some 300 pounds of goose poop a day. Foster City has received national attention for its troubles with Canada geese. Each goose — the city estimates it has between 300 and 400 of them — can produce one or two pounds of droppings a day, turning a park into a minefield. The goose poop requires regular power washings and has contributed to high E. coli levels in parts of the local lagoon. During nesting season the birds can become aggressive, even chasing off small dogs and children. 'We are at the front lines of dealing with this issue,' said Derek Schweigart, Foster City's parks and recreation director. Earlier this month, Foster City took its most comprehensive action yet, with the city council approving a roughly $400,000 contract with a wildlife company to deter the geese at seven 'high impact' parks. Starting sometime in the next month, the company will begin using drones, lasers, balloons and — eventually — dogs to scare or 'haze' the birds. The contract, which is active through June 2026, approved nonlethal measures only. Canada geese have long been a fixture of Foster City's grassy parks, residents say. But as the goose population has swelled, doubling between 2020 and 2022, so have the complaints. Susan Lessin, a 30-year resident of Foster City and member of the San Mateo County Bird Alliance, said she suspects the issue was also exacerbated during the pandemic as residents started spending more time outdoors — and quickly realized they have to be careful where they step. While research has indicated geese aren't a significant transmitter of disease to humans, parents have told the city council that they feel unsafe allowing their children to play in local parks. One man, according to a 2022 New York Times article, said his 2-year-old daughter became sick after putting goose feces in her mouth. And Foster City is far from alone. Wildlife experts say Canada geese are very good at adapting to humans, drawn by the green spaces humans create for themselves. Santa Clara, Redwood City, Oakland and other Bay Area communities have all reported issues with their goose populations. And unless cities want to keep spending the time and money to clean up after the birds, they may have to change, too. 'Frankly, they were here before we were,' Lessin said. 'And to a certain extent, the public has to adapt to the geese.' Once hunted to near-extinction in parts of the United States, Canada geese populations have exploded over the past several decades, thanks in large part to federal protections. In California, breeding geese have generally congregated in the northeast corner of the state. But over the past two or three decades, they've become more distributed throughout the state, said Melanie Weaver, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's waterfowl unit. In 1994, according to a partial count of California's waterfowl, nearly 99% of surveyed breeding Canada geese were in the northeast part of the state. By 2024, that had dropped to about 50%, while the share in the Sacramento Valley and other surveyed regions grew substantially. Like crows, gulls and other 'urban' birds, geese flock to cities because they offer easy food sources and few natural predators. Canada geese are also one of the few bird species that can digest grass, making Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Lake Merritt in Oakland ideal resting spots for them. And because geese tend to return to the place they were born to build their own nests, they become much harder to scare away once they become established in a city. (It also doesn't help that, despite park officials' pleas, some visitors continue to feed the geese). Geese that stay roughly in the same place year-round, known as 'resident' geese, tend to reproduce more than their migratory peers, contributing to their rapid population growth. And because they prefer man-made environments, there's generally little competition with other waterfowl over resources, though you might see the occasional squabble with a gull. 'When humans decide, 'Let's have a park with grass surrounding it,' you've created the most perfect environment for those geese,' Weaver said. 'It's unfortunate, because they are really cool animals,' she added. 'But when they get in that environment, it's not so cool.' Foster City residents and officials alike are waiting to see whether their latest efforts will make the geese think twice about nesting at a local park. Previous attempts have been mixed. When the city tried strobe lights, residents seemed more bothered than were the geese. Adding fencing around the lagoon kept geese out for a while, but the geese eventually found ways around it. Egg addling — shaking or otherwise damaging newly laid eggs to prevent the embryo from developing — keeps the population from growing too rapidly, but that doesn't affect the living geese, which can survive for more than 20 years. Still, Schweigart, the parks and recreation director, said that the city hopes that by combining approaches, the geese will decide it's not worth sticking around. Some research has shown that these multi-pronged efforts can get groups of geese to change locations, but that they often simply move to nearby parks. Even if Foster City succeeds, hundreds of geese may show up in a neighboring community. Aside from the egg addling project, which is conducted between a few San Mateo County cities, each city is tackling its goose issue independently. A longer-term solution to the problem, some officials have suggested, would take a region-wide effort. Lessin, the longtime Foster City resident, said that while she has concerns about the cost of her city's new program, she supports the plan and hopes it will lead to more long-term solutions — as long as they're nonlethal, she emphasized. Plans to euthanize some of the geese in 2022 were dropped after opposition from activists and some residents. 'Everyone is very optimistic, but I think we're cautiously optimistic,' she said. Foster City's 24 parks may look different in the future, as part of a more permanent solution. The city is building a new recreation center at Leo J. Ryan Park and replacing much of the grass with native trees and shrubs. That change, which Schweigart said the city hopes to replicate in its other parks, leaves little food for the geese to eat, forcing them to go elsewhere. In other words, the best way to moderate the goose population may be to change what attracted them in the first place. 'We created this environment for' the geese, Schweigart said. 'And now, unfortunately, we're facing the consequences.'
USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
She ignored 'scam' texts telling her she owed money. It backfired
Americans' inboxes face a daily deluge of unwanted spam. Phishing texts claiming that tolls haven't been paid or packages can't be delivered, calls from solicitors promising to erase debt, malware emails offering winnings from a sweepstakes that no one ever entered. The youngest and oldest among us, even, have developed a way to manage the sheer volume of messages, often by hitting 'delete' the moment something looks like it slipped past their spam filter. This instinct, however, comes with the risk of missing real, urgent messages, something one California resident learned the hard way. Ashley, 47, said she had been receiving texts from a number claiming to be The Toll Roads, the administrator of tolling in California, stating that the balance on her electronic toll payment method, FasTrak (similar to other systems like E-Z Pass, SunPass and TxTag), was getting low. With everyone from the federal government to the tolling agency itself advising that consumers delete phony text messages about owed tolls from their phones, she did just that. More: Toll road scam: More transportation authorities warn of fake texts in multiple states 'I assumed it was a scam and so I just kept deleting them because I was like, 'Oh, I'm not going to fall for that, I'm too smart to fall for that,'' she told USA TODAY. 'Prior to this, they had been communicating with me via email. I didn't even know that they had my phone number and so I assumed 100% it was a scam.' Ashley's reticence to click the link urging her to 'pay now' was hardly unfounded; warnings about a storm of phishing texts from scammers posing as toll authorities have been issued by agencies from the Federal Trade Commission to the FBI since January. Having received a plethora of obviously fake texts from senders claiming to be from UPS, FedEx, her bank and beyond, Ashley said she had no reason to believe these were any different. That was, until she finally got an email, reviewed by USA TODAY, with a big, bold deactivation notice. When 'scam' texts turn out to be real '[The email] said 'we've deactivated your account. You're going to be in flagrant violation if you use any of our toll roads ever again,'' Ashley said. 'And I just panicked because I use them all the time, you know.' It was then that she finally logged in, checked her account, and found it disconnected from the auto-refill feature that had previously been attached to her bank card. 'I went into my account and, indeed, it had been deactivated, it had been canceled and all of those text messages were, in fact, from them,' she said. Fortunately, she had not yet incurred a large unpaid balance of tolls and fees, but she said the idea that she could have been breaking the law or putting herself in a bad position without her knowledge troubled her. 'Anytime I get a text message that says 'you need to send money' or 'click on this link' and I don't know where it's from, I automatically delete it,' she said. 'I do wonder how businesses are going to be able to communicate with their customers via text. I'm not even sure that they can because there is so much fraud that I don't think I'm alone in not believing a text from a legitimate business.' Toll companies advise caution Michelle Kennedy, media relations manager for The Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA), which operates The Toll Roads, told USA TODAY in an email that while some account holders may receive texts about legitimate account issues, 'the majority' of text interactions reported to the agency are phishing scam-related. '[TCA] will send text messages to our accountholders ONLY if they opt in to receive messages – and only sent when we are unable to process payment on their account, replenishment amounts change or credit card expiration is nearing,' she said. Customers may also receive interactions from legitimate customer service representatives via email, phone call or physical mail. '[TCA] has several ways for customers to interact with The Toll Roads and check account status, establish accounts, manage accounts, pay tolls and resolve violations,' she said, including The Toll Roads app, statement emails and customer service phone lines and walk-in centers. How to spot a text message scam While Ashley was able to reactivate her account without paying a huge fee, an account that goes delinquent can result in hundreds and even thousands of dollars in penalties in other states. With scam attacks on iPhones and Androids surging by more than 700% in June alone, the need for caution doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, leaving consumers with the question: how do I protect myself from malicious texts without missing real and important ones? Leyla Bilge, Global Head of Scam Research for the antivirus and cybersecurity software company Norton, has some tips. 'With scam messages growing more convincing, it's no longer enough to rely on instinct alone,' she said. 'Think of your inbox like a busy street. Some doors lead to real businesses, and others are traps. You wouldn't walk into a sketchy alley just because someone shouted your name, so treat suspicious messages the same way.' Bilge's checklist for verifying the legitimacy of a text includes a few easy-to-follow tips: 'When people understand how scams operate and feel equipped to verify messages safely, they're more likely to pause, think, and make the right call — without missing something important,' she said. 'The calmer and more confident we are, the harder it is for scammers to succeed.'
