New text scam in Colorado pretends to be DMV employee, alleges unpaid tickets

CBS News

15 hours ago

A new type of scam text message looks like it's coming from the Colorado DMV. But the goal of all scammers is the same -- separating you from your money.
Lakewood resident Lauren Perrin almost got hit with it before asking her father to take a look at the message. It saved her from potentially clicking a bad link or sending money somewhere.
"I had to ask two people, and the verbiage was very formal," Perrin told CBS Colorado. "It definitely fit the way that it would be sent if someone here said this."
The texts have ended up everywhere, even in our CBS Colorado newsroom, where many of our coworkers have received the scam.
The DMV says the texts have started to become more prevalent lately. When a person receives the text, it says they have overdue tickets to be paid, and, if they do not do so soon, there may be more penalties.
"I think my text said I had one day to get all the tickets I never paid," Perrin joked. "But it came from a random number. It wasn't like 1-800. I actually asked my Dad and he said forget about it"
In a statement to CBS Colorado, the DMV suggests not clicking any links to a suspicious text, not sharing any personal information or replying to the message at all. Those that responded to our question on the CBS Colorado Facebook page said they largely received and deleted them.
If you have been affected by a scam text, the DMV suggests changing your passwords, contacting your bank or financial institution, consider a fraud alert and staying generally vigilant. Perrin now has a trained eye as well as a unique strategy for sussing out scammers going forward.
"They're probably using ChatGPT or AI to make these texts, so I would run it through there to see if it was," Perrin said. "And just ask your friends."