- Scammers are texting fake court enforcement notices to drivers nationwide.
- Real courts will never demand payment or fines through a text message.
- Contacting your local court directly is the only safe way to verify a notice.
Ignorance of the law doesn’t exonerate someone who breaks it, so it’s easy to see why someone might pay a ticket they never expected. They don’t want to deal with the potential fallout or resource expenditure of fighting it. For drivers across the USA, a new first step should always be confirming the ticket is real in the first place. That’s the message from law enforcement from sea to shining sea.
Instead of the familiar fake toll-road text or bogus parking ticket warning we’ve told you about in the past, scammers are now sending what looks like an official “Final Notice – Court Enforcement Action” from a state court or traffic division.
The traffic ticket notice is usually delivered by text message as an image attachment, complete with a fake case number, a judge’s name, legal jargon, and a QR code that supposedly lets you pay your outstanding balance.
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The image looks surprisingly convincing. One version circulating in Nebraska claims to come from Lancaster County Court and warns recipients they owe money for “toll evasion” and “parking violations.” It threatens everything from a suspended driver’s license to damaged credit if payment isn’t made immediately. Of course, the kicker is that it’s completely fake in every way. Across the nation, authorities are seeing the scam grow, and they’re warning citizens about it.
Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown issued a warning saying that “Consumers who receive such electronic messages should not click on any links within the message, should avoid replying to the message, and should delete the message from their device.” That advice appears to be quite uniform.
Chadron police in Nebraska told locals to avoid clicking any links or calling any numbers on the notice. Instead, they say to contact the local court or county office. Johnson City police in Kansas saw the same scam and told citizens, “You will not receive a court notice through text message, especially on a holiday or a Sunday.” Clearly, there are plenty of warning signs to consider here.
California AG Rob Bonta told his citizens that “If you receive a text or email asking you for payment or personal information, pause and assess the message — scammers will weaponize urgency and make you feel like you are in the wrong and need to act immediately.
Be suspicious of texts or emails asking you for personal information or money. No matter how official-looking they might seem, always double-check the status of traffic tickets directly with the court.” That’s good advice that we’ve seen time and time again. Contacting a local authority if there’s any doubt at all about a ticket’s legitimacy is key.
