Texas DMV scam text

How to tell

In order. The first one holds even when the rest of the message looks completely real, which is the situation most people are actually in.

1. It asks you to pay a traffic or toll fine to the Texas DMV.

   TxDMV says it "is not a law enforcement agency and does not issue or collect fines for toll or traffic violations". It has no role in collecting this kind of money at all, so the demand is false whoever sent it. This is the tell worth remembering, because it holds even if you really do have an unpaid ticket somewhere: a real one would never be collected by this department.

2. It arrived without you asking, and it contains a link to pay.

   TxDMV says it "does not communicate about alleged registration violations through unsolicited text messages". The link is the whole point of the message, and the department’s first instruction is not to tap it. The scam needs you on a page of its own making to take your card and identity details.

3. It threatens prosecution, suspension or the loss of your licence, right now.

   TxDMV lists exactly these threats as the pattern: "immediate prosecution, suspension of vehicle registration, or loss of driving privileges". The urgency is the mechanism rather than a detail of it. It is there to spend your attention on panic instead of on checking, because checking is all it takes to break this.

4. The sender is named something close to the Texas DMV without being it.

   TxDMV says the messages claim to be from the department "or similarly named agencies". A plausible agency name is trivially invented and proves nothing. Use this to confirm a conclusion you already reached from the tells above, never to decide: getting the name exactly right would not make the demand real either.

What TxDMV actually does

Nothing that involves you paying it a fine, because it does not collect them. If you want to check your own registration standing, type txdmv.gov into your browser yourself, or write to the department’s published customer address, AskDMV@TxDMV.gov. If you think you may genuinely have an unpaid ticket, that record sits with the court or the authority that issued it rather than with TxDMV, so look that body up yourself and call it on a number you already know is correct. Use nothing from the message, including any phone number in it.

Where to report it

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center

Report it at ic3.gov, typing the address yourself. This is the first route TxDMV names in its own release.

The Federal Trade Commission

Report it at reportfraud.ftc.gov, the second route TxDMV names.

Your mobile carrier

Forward the message to 7726, which spells SPAM on a keypad. It is free on every major carrier.