According to NJCCIC, there is a new wave of reports of SMS text phishing (SMiShing) scams impersonating the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC). These urgent-sounding messages claim to be a final notice about an unpaid traffic violation, with a short deadline to resolve the issue. The message further states that if the fee is not paid, consequences will include a suspended registration and license, reporting to collections, and potential legal proceedings. A link in the message purports to lead to the official NJ MVC website and includes “nj.gov” and “mvc” to appear legitimate; however, it uses a “.help” top-level domain (TLD) instead of the official “.gov.”
The website uses official NJ MVC logos and branding to collect personally identifiable information (PII) and financial information. Threat actors behind this campaign are also attempting to steal multiple payment methods. A user reported that after submitting their payment information, the website returned an error message stating that the card was not accepted. After entering a secondary card, the website indicated that it could not accept payments from that financial institution
What You Should Do
- Avoid clicking links, responding to, or acting on unsolicited text messages.
- Confirm requests from senders via contact information obtained from verified and official sources.
- Type official website URLs into browsers manually.
- Users who submitted payment information to these webpages are advised to contact their banking institutions to report the fraudulent purchases.
- Report SMiShing to the NJCCIC, the FBI’s IC3, and forward the message to 7726 (SPAM).
If you have questions or need assistance, contact a member of the Admiral team.
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