State officials are warning everyone to watch out for another round of text scams.
The messages are pretending to be the Washington Department of Licensing, demanding urgent payment or major consequences.
We’ve all gotten those messages, lengthy and threatening texts from suspicious senders claiming to be the Washington Department of Licensing.
WADOL Spokesperson Thomas Charlson tells us that kind of text will never come from them.
“These are fake; we don’t send out text messages for urgent payment,” Charlson said.
Many of them are threatening suspension, additional fees, and legal proceedings.
“Sometimes these messages will have an international area code or an unofficial area code, which are big red flags too,” Charlson said.
He tells us that if the DOL needs to contact you, it will be obvious.
“We do reach out to people through email or a full-sized letter as a way to let them know about possible license suspensions,” he said.
Officials say if you get scammed, you are likely out of that money for good.
“We can’t refund them, but we recommend they contact their financial institution to report the scam,” Charlson said.
When you get one of these texts, report it as spam and report it to the FTC; that way, a record is kept in their system.
You can learn about all current DMV/DOL/GoodtoGo scams here: https://dol.wa.gov/about/privacy-center/scam-alerts
You can report a scam to the Federal Trade Commission here: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/?orgcode=WADOL