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Saturday, April 18, 2026

Oooh, I'm in trouble....

 
This was sent via text to my phone.

I guess it looks more or less official.
And I know that people fall for this shit all the time.
But there aren't any toll roads in Oregon. 
I have never had a speeding ticket. Like, ever.
There were no other notifications, which should make anyone suspicious as this is designed to get a person to panic based on 'THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING' stuff.

And the penalties, like not being allowed to register any of my vehicles, don't work that way.

My name is not included anywhere, nor is there any identifying information. Of course it's a scam.

I'm not dumb enough to click on the QR code with my phone, but I have an old phone that still works.

Hm. Wonder where it leads.
Scroll past the scary certificate looking thing for what happened when I looked at the QR code.



So I powered up my old phone and scanned the QR code. 

First it took me to a page where I had to click on a box to verify that I am human.

The header on the page after that said MASSDMV.

It was an official looking website for the State of Massachusetts.
Apparently I owe $16.95.

Now obviously I'm not paying them anything, but my guess is that if I had paid them the nominal fee by credit/debit card, they'd take whatever they could out of my account.

In a way, I'd think that a person who was falling for the scam would look at that nominal fee and think, huh, all this threatening stuff over 17 bucks? And then maybe not proceed. But who knows? 

Anyway, I didn't try to pay it, but it might have been fun to use an old card just to make them spent some time on it. But maybe not. Better to just not engage.

6 comments:

  1. Wow, that's a good one. I almost got scammed a few months ago with a phone call telling me that a process server was coming with documents for me to sign. When I said I didn't know they were coming he said well then I can't serve them until you call this number and they said they were going to sue me for a bill I owed but I owe no one. Told me to pay $3,000. Yeah ok.

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  2. I love hearing about failed scams. Sometimes I watch a YouTube channel about messing with scammers. My mom has been scammed enough times that my brother finally permanently revoked her debit card.

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  3. Thanks for warning people about that. I don't believe an official notice would use that kind of language, but some people might be fooled by this.

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    Replies
    1. My mom was fooled by a similar one. Another occasion that caused my brother to cancel one of the 12 debit cards in the last three years. He asked her where the nearest toll road was and she said, "Oh, I didn't think of that."

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  4. I've been getting one with 'this your shopping code'. Yep.

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    Replies
    1. Oh yeah. And, "You're being charged 900 bucks, if this is incorrect click here. " Haha no.

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