The FBI is sounding the alarm about a dangerous new development in the ever-changing world of digital scams.
And this one allegedly shows up as an official looking text message.
There has been an enormous uptick in text-based scams recently, with one cyber security company pointing to a triple-digit percentage increase in a single week:
Did you get a text from your state’s DMV saying you owe a fee or violated traffic laws?
You’re not alone.
We’ve spotted a 773% surge in DMV scam texts – and they’re getting way more dangerous
pic.twitter.com/5WkDOsc1m4
— Guardio (@GuardioSecurity) June 11, 2025
The specific scam being warned about is an upgrade on the more common version that pretends to alert the user to unpaid toll fines.
The newer version mimics an official alert from the state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), according to the New York Post:
The FBI is warning millions of Americans to be wary of an innocuous-seeming text message that’s making the rounds — and to delete it immediately if they get it.
Here’s how the scammers trap unsuspecting iPhone users in their web — by posing as the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) of different states.
The messages look like they could be legit, telling people that if they don’t pay an unpaid toll or fine, they might be subjected to having their driving privileges revoked or possible jail time.
The text includes a link and instructs people to reply to the message then open the link.
But officials warn that all of this is just someone trying to steal your personal data — and urged users not to click the link and rather immediately delete the text.
New York State DMV Commissioner Mark J. F. Schroeder added, “These scammers flood phones with texts, hoping to trick unsuspecting people into handing over their personal information. DMV will never send texts asking for sensitive details.”
The new scam has already shown up in multiple states.
Florida’s Department of Transportation is just one of the many state DMV’s dealing with the new scam, and trying to alert people to the danger.
The local CBS News affiliate out of Orlando warned Floridians about the new scam in this report:
The Las Vegas area has also been hit hard by the new DMV text-based scam.
Their department shared a description of the new scam, explaining a few details including how to identify which texts are dangerous, and what to do if you receive one of the fake texts:
We’ve been made aware of text messages like the one pictured here, falsely claiming to be from the Nevada DMV and threatening license suspensions and fines. This is a scam — and here’s how you can tell:
It references a suspicious URL (ending in .vip, which… pic.twitter.com/IakCnST2d0
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) June 9, 2025
Here’s the full text of that informative post:
We’ve been made aware of text messages like the one pictured here, falsely claiming to be from the Nevada DMV and threatening license suspensions and fines. This is a scam — and here’s how you can tell:
Do NOT click on suspicious links.
If you received a message like this, do not respond. Report it to your mobile carrier and mark it as junk.
Stay vigilant, Las Vegas. Scammers are always looking for new ways to trick you — but we’re here to help stop them.
As noted by the FBI, this scam allegedly originates directly from Chinese cyber gangs.
That means the groups sending these texts to American phones essentially operate with complete impunity, free of any ramification from the U.S. legal system, as explained in this article from Forbes:
Attacks on iPhone and Android users surged more than 700% this month, with malicious texts targeting multiple cities and states. Following alerts from police forces across the country, the FBI has now confirmed the latest warning and stepped in. This threat comes directly from China, and you need to delete all these texts immediately.
Attackers have learnt lessons from their unpaid toll texts, and this attack will be more dangerous.
Now the FBI has confirmed it is investigating the DMV scam. According to FBI Tennessee’s Supervisory Special Agent David Palmer, the unpaid toll cybercriminals have “pivoted to the DMV scam.” Confirming the gangs operate from overseas, Palmer warns these texts can “put malware on your phone, which then can go in and steal information from your device, or collect your payment information.”
There will be millions of these texts sent out over the coming weeks and months. As Resecurity warns, “just one threat actor can send “up to 2,000,000 smishing messages daily,” which means targeting “up to 60,000,000 victims per month, or 720,000,000 per year, enough to target every person in the U.S. at least twice every year.”
“The Chinese cybercriminal syndicates involved in smishing,” Resecurity warns, “are brazen because they feel untouchable. They have emphasized in their communications that they do not care about U.S. law enforcement agencies. Residing in China, they enjoy complete freedom of action and engage in many illegal activities.”
Just as with undelivered packages and unpaid tolls, the FBI’s advice is to “delete any smishing texts received.” You don’t want the dangerous links left on your phone, even though many are only active for a few hours before they’re detected and blocked. (Emphasis added.)
With all that is going on in the world, the last thing any of us need is to worry about our private identity and financial information falling into the wrong hands.
Most of the time, simply avoiding clicking on any unknown links in emails or text can protect you from phishing scams.
But these new ‘smishing’ text-based scams may exposure your information to criminals just by their presence in your text app.
That’s a scary thought for those of us who purposefully try to AVOID checking our phones every five minutes!
If you’re like me, you might want to rethink that otherwise good habit, and watch your incoming text messages a little more closely over the next few weeks… just in case.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.
View the original article here.
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