By Shae Rozzi, Fox23 News
Nothing makes your heart race quite like seeing police lights in your rear view and realizing you’re being pulled over for a traffic violation.
Now scammers are trying to convince you you need to pay or appear in court for a ticket you never received.
Chances are you probably have broken the law while behind the wheel. Speeding, maybe one day you weren’t wearing your seatbelt, or you changed lanes without using your signal, or passed someone on the right instead of the left.
Scammers are now trying to get you to pay for something you may have done, but weren’t actually caught doing.
The violations listed include failure to pay electronic toll, a parking violation, and speeding violation.
The words “Immediate Action Required” are highlighted then warns about all the things that could happen if you fail to act and includes a court hearing date.
“We are seeing them all across the country just like we did with ‘You owe tolls.’ says Amie Mitchell, CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Oklahoma. “What we’re seeing is a nationwide scam being reported that you get a text message, it’ll say Judge ABC will see you in courtroom XYZ on a certain day. It seems very specific and legitimate.. however it is not.”
On the BBB’s website where you can report scams through their scam tracker, a person in Oklahoma says they got a similar text claiming “I owed for an improper lane passing (passing on the right) and they said if I did not pay the fine of $275 or appear in court April 11, 2026 that a warrant would be issued, license suspended, etc. They wanted me to reply back with a “T” to confirm the summons.”
“What this is is a phishing scam and they’re trying to get your payment information so that they can charge your card and use it for whatever they want to. So be really careful and know that if you do get a summons or a traffic violation, it’s going to come in the mail and you’re going to have a seal on the piece of paper to know that it is legitimate.” says Amie.
Any text claiming you have a traffic ticket or owe money for a missed toll is a scam. Traffic citations are issued to you when you get pulled over. And if you owe money for a toll because you don’t have a Pikepass, you’ll get the bill in the mail, not in a text.
