Police Warns that PennDOT Scam Email Targeting Locals

Fox43.com reported on 16th May, 2015 stating that Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Intelligence Center (PACIC) warns about a fake email notification claiming to be from PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation).

The email is entitled: "Action required- fine for Traffic Violations" and its content say that a vehicle registered in your name was caught while jumping a red light along with the desecration date, ticket number and a precise amount of fine. There were also several links for clicking to see photographs and pay fine or more information about the security service of the email. Those URLs redirect the Internaut to websites not associated with PennDot or the Commonwealth of PA.

You can see signs which indicate it as a phishing scam with poor spelling and grammatical errors in the message. This message contained wrong spelling of 'violation' along with two different dates of violation. Moreover, certificates or traffic tickets issued in Pennsylvania are not directly paid to PennDot because definite municipalities or state regulation enforcement agencies generate these.

Lancasteronline.com published news on 15th May, 2015 according to which Trooper Adam Reed of the state police department said that they did not have any idea about the quantity of emails sent. It is difficult to identify the sender because several emails are sent from overseas.

Lancasteronline.com published news on 15th May, 2015 quoting Rich Kirkpatrick, Spokesman of PennDOT in Harrisburg (Pennsylvania), as saying: "a resident of Virginia warned PennDOT on Wednesday, 13th May, 2015 having received the email."

Kirkpatrick and Reed do not know any person who has reported about the receipt of email. Reed said that most of the people might have deleted it after receiving it.

Kirkpatrick was not aware of any attack targeting PennDOT by scammers before.

Reed advised all victims contact their local police department about the scam.

Internauts were also advised not to open any unsolicited emails and should never open any link or attachments which come from any unknown sender.

Kirkpatrick said that PennDOT is making an announcement on its website about the scam. Anyone having any questions may call Driver & Vehicle Service call center of PennDOT at (800)932-4600.

» SPAMfighter News - 5/27/2015