The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is urging motorists to be vigilant against a text message scam targeting traffic violators.
LTO chief and assistant secretary Vigor D. Mendoza II said all those messages are online scams designed to steal information from those who would be victimized, including bank and e-wallet information that could lead to losing the victims’ hard-earned money.
“We are continuously receiving reports of these scams and that’s why we are advising all our clients to ignore these messages in order to protect themselves from online scammers,” Mendoza said.
“Once again, we would like to remind the public that the LTO does not send traffic violation messages through text or any messaging app. If you receive one, that means it came from scammers,” he added.
Messages from scammers come with a link that once clicked, redirects users to a bogus LTO site wherein the users are required to input their license plate and other personal information.
The scammers also require their potential victims to input in the bogus LTO website bank information and other details about e-wallets. The intention is to gain access and empty all the money in the accounts.
“Do not ever type in the license plates of your motor vehicles and give other personal information about your bank or e-wallets accounts. Better yet, ignore all of them because they are certainly scams,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza said the LTO has coordinated with experts from law enforcement agencies, especially the Philippine National Police and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), to run after the perpetrators of this scam.
Under the guidance of Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista, Mendoza also ordered all regional directors and district office heads to intensify the information drive using their respective social media accounts to inform the public of the scam modus.
LTO officials were also advised to include the information drive against scammers in the conduct of a free Theoretical Driving Course in their respective areas of responsibility.
