Hi Massachusetts! I'm Undersecretary Layla D'Emilia, and welcome to Fact or Fraud, a new monthly series where I break down common scams and show you how to spot them. Today's example is definitely fraud. I'm looking at a group chat text message about a traffic ticket. The first red flag is inconsistencies with the sender's name. It says Massachusetts traffic ticket followed by a reference to "WA" in the phrase "DriverEzWA." That should immediately raise suspicion because WA is the abbreviation for the state of Washington, not the state of Massachusetts. Another issue is the phone number. If you search the sender's phone number online, you definitely do not find a legitimate government agency like the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. If you receive a text like this one, always check the phone number, spelling and grammar. Scams often include small mistakes that signal something isn't right. Next, this text was sent to 10 people. Our friends at MassDOT would never contact you about a ticket in a group message with multiple people. Government agencies will never ask you to pay for tickets, fines or toll violations by text message. Scammers are always trying to create urgency. In this message, it says you must pay within 12 hours. This pressure is a common tactic used to rush people into making mistakes. The final red flag is the link. If this was a real mass.gov website, the link wouldn't include extra characters, dashes, or periods like this one. You should not click this link. This is an example of the scam called "smishing" that uses links and text to install malware on your phone. The malware then steals your personal information. If you receive a text message like this, report it as spam using your phone's notification button or by forwarding it to 7726, which spells spam to directly alert your wireless provider. Then delete it. This message is fraud. Remember, always visit Mass.gov/RMV directly to handle any motor vehicle business. I'll see you next time on Fact or Fraud.
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