RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – A text scam circulated Monday claiming recipients had committed a traffic violation and needed to take immediate action.
Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin said she received messages from people across the state about the fake summons.
“Some people wanted to know whether or not this was a scam, some people thought it was real and wanted to let me know they couldn’t make it to court in time and what should they do,” McEachin said.
In the four hours the General District Court clerk’s office was open Monday, it received around 200 calls from people with questions.
Viewers who were targeted also came forward to 12 On Your Side.
“It came as a text message to my daughter who is a college student out of state and she was home last week for spring break,” Mairedith Lind said. “It’s very disheartening that people would do that to get money out of people.”
A close examination of the document reveals several signs it is fraudulent. Among those indicators are that the judge and clerk of courts listed share the same name and the hearing date is unrealistically soon.
“The reasons that the scammers do that is that they want you to be so fearful and scared that you’re going to get in trouble with the court because ‘oh my gosh this hearing is the next day, and I didn’t even know that I had this violation, let alone that I had to pay for it,’” McEachin said.
The commonwealth’s attorney’s office said it will never send a summons via text or request payment in the manner described in the scam. McEachin said a legitimate summons will look different.
“You’ll receive a letter on appropriate letterhead with an actual number that you can call that takes you to the Richmond Police Department or the clerk’s office. If you call this number, it just goes to someone who gives their name and nothing else,” she said.
Anyone receiving messages like this can report them to Richmond Police at (804) 646-5100 or simply delete the message.
“You can ignore it, you can absolutely ignore it,” McEachin said.
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