Fake speeding ticket texts spark public warning

The Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion is warn­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic about fraud­u­lent text mes­sages claim­ing re­cip­i­ents have com­mit­ted speed­ing vi­o­la­tions and must make pay­ments with­in sev­en days to re­ceive a 50 per cent dis­count.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued, the min­istry said the mes­sages are fake and did not orig­i­nate from the min­istry or the Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, the mes­sages false­ly sug­gest they car­ry le­gal au­thor­i­ty and at­tempt to pres­sure re­cip­i­ents in­to mak­ing im­me­di­ate pay­ments. The min­istry stressed that the no­tices are not is­sued by, af­fil­i­at­ed with, or con­nect­ed to the Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty in any way.

Of­fi­cials urged cit­i­zens to ig­nore the mes­sages and avoid click­ing on any links in­clud­ed in them. The min­istry al­so warned against shar­ing per­son­al or fi­nan­cial in­for­ma­tion with un­known sources, not­ing that scam­mers of­ten use such tac­tics to steal sen­si­tive da­ta.

The min­istry re­mind­ed the pub­lic to re­ly on­ly on its of­fi­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels for ac­cu­rate in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing speed­ing vi­o­la­tions, fixed penal­ty no­tices, and re­lat­ed ser­vices.

The warn­ing comes amid grow­ing con­cerns glob­al­ly about phish­ing scams and fraud­u­lent on­line ac­tiv­i­ty tar­get­ing mo­torists and mem­bers of the pub­lic through text mes­sages and emails de­signed to ap­pear le­git­i­mate.

The min­istry en­cour­aged any­one who re­ceives the fake mes­sages to delete them im­me­di­ate­ly and re­main vig­i­lant when deal­ing with any com­mu­ni­ca­tion re­quest­ing pay­ment or per­son­al in­for­ma­tion.

It al­so thanked the pub­lic for its con­tin­ued co­op­er­a­tion and vig­i­lance in help­ing to iden­ti­fy and re­port sus­pi­cious ac­tiv­i­ty.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic seek­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion on speed­ing vi­o­la­tions or Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty mat­ters are ad­vised to con­tact the Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion di­rect­ly through its of­fi­cial chan­nels.