By Emily Long
The newest text scam making the rounds is a message that (poorly) impersonates your state DMV with a threat to rescind your license unless you pay outstanding fees. NPR reports that departments of motor vehicles in New York, Florida, and California have alerted residents to the scam, but it has been spotted in other places too (including Utah, where I live).
How the DMV text scam works
This scam purports to be from the DMV or transportation department in your state and warns of unpaid fees for traffic violations or tolls. The message directs recipients to a link to pay these supposed penalties or risk losing their license (or “driving privileges”) or face legal action. It also references a state statute that may actually be legitimate (albeit unrelated to the warning), but that doesn’t mean the text itself is.
The DMV scam currently circulating is similar to the unpaid tolls scam and the unpaid parking fee scam, both of which are examples of smishing, or SMS phishing. This type of attack relies on text messages to try to convince targets to click malicious links and disclose personal or financial information or download malware to their device in the process. Scammers engaging in smishing often attempt to impersonate legitimate institutions, such as banks and government agencies.
According to data from Robokiller, Americans received 19.2 billion spam texts, of which smishing is an example, in April 2025. That’s an average of 63 messages per person.
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