The Maine Secretary of State issued a warning June 9 in response to widespread scam texts pretending to be the Maine "Department of Motor Vehicles." A key giveaway: Maine’s agency is officially the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, not “department.”  

According to the agency, people across Maine received text messages saying they had an unpaid traffic violation with a fake, non-.gov, link to pay it. As with many scams, the text urges recipients to act quickly or face serious penalties.

“Don’t fall for the scammers’ criminal tricks. Report the text as junk, and whatever you do, don’t click on the link. We will never notify you of a license suspension via text,” the Secretary of State’s office posted on its Facebook page.