Beware! Fake parking ticket SMS scams are on the rise

Scammers might be criminal scum, but you can’t deny that they’re always trying to innovate. With automation and generative text now much easier, we seem to be experiencing a new flood of phishing attempts. The latest one is particularly effective for car owners: fake parking tickets.

BleepingComputer reports a new wave of text message scams hitting numbers associated with area codes in US cities from coast to coast. These alerts claim to be from municipal authorities warning about unpaid parking tickets. “This is a final reminder from City of [your closest big city] regarding the unpaid parking invoice,” says the phony message. “A $35 daily overdue fee will be charged if payment is not made today.” A link to a fake website instructing you to input your personal info follows.

You probably understand on an intellectual level that fakes like this are common. But please don’t discount the danger here, as it’s an effective attack on multiple levels. A text like this sent to 100,000 numbers in an urban area code will absolutely hit tons of people who own a car and are constantly concerned with parking tickets, even if they’re careful to avoid them. An alarming message from authority, complete with a threat of daily compounding fines, is enough to get plenty of people to immediately click out of concern… without the due suspicion that texts from an unknown number should inspire.

A similar tactic targets drivers who are often on toll roads — again, very likely if you drive in any big US city. A Macworld editor recently got the following message, and I’ve seen similar ones sent to my number, even though it’s from a relatively rural Texas area code. Note the random email address and URL showing an obvious phishing attempt.

Foundry

Phone carriers and companies like Google and Apple are doing their best to protect user. (An iMessage feature disables the automatic hyperlinks in text messages for senders who aren’t on your Contacts list.) But again, scammers use volume and automation to reach as many people as possible, some of whom will be less tech-savvy or simply not on their guard. I’ve accidentally clicked on one of those “your package is held up” messages, all because I’m expecting a package about half the time.

Unfortunately, dealing with phishing and other scams requires constant vigilance in the modern age. And however hard digital gatekeepers try to keep them out, scammers will try even harder to get around those methods. Sadly, they’ll often succeed.