the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, local Police are warning people about possible identity thieves sending text messages posing as the state Motor Vehicle Commission in a phishing scam.
There have been several incident reports pertaining to SMS text scams purporting to be from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC). Some of the reported messages contained language such as “Please update your Driver License to date, this was instructed by the Motor Vehicle Commission of the New Jersey, please click here [link] to get started now” and “New Jersey Department of Transportation, You need to validate your Driver’s license information with us for Traffic safety. Visit [link] to validate instantly. MVC.” The links included in these text messages, if clicked, navigated to a phishing website impersonating the NJ MVC’s MyMVC site. The web page displays a form requesting the user to submit personally identifiable information (PII), including their full name, driver’s license number, and date of birth. If entered and the “Continue” button is clicked, a second web page populates, requesting their mail address, Social Security number, and zip code. Once that information is submitted, the user is then redirected to the legitimate MyMVC login page. The phishing web pages are created to appear legitimate, using the same logos, fonts, and color scheme as the official MyMVC site. The goal of this campaign appears to be PII data theft, which could be used in various identity theft schemes. There are multiple URLs employed in these scams. As these sites are reported and taken down, others are established. Similar SMS text message scam have been observed in several states around the country and are ongoing.
The NJCCIC highly recommends users navigate directly to websites by typing the known legitimate URL into their browser and refrain from clicking links delivered in text messages. As more organizations begin using text messages as a means of communication, it may become more difficult for users to discern between legitimate and fraudulent messages. Cyber incidents can be reported to the NJCCIC via the Incident Reporting form on our website. For more information on SMS text message scams such as these, please review the NJCCIC post: Increase in SMS Text Phishing.