Is that DMV text about a ticket or fee a scam?

How to spot the DMV scam

• It threatens to report you to the "DMV violation database". No such national database exists. The FTC quotes that exact phrase as a marker of this scam, so if your text contains it, you are reading a copy of a known template.
• It adds a 35% service fee. That figure recurs across the campaign, and no state DMV surcharges a fine by percentage over text.
• The escalation is implausibly broad: suspend your registration, your licence and your driving privileges, prosecute you, and damage your credit score. Real DMV enforcement does not arrive bundled as a single threat in one message.
• The link is not your state's .gov domain. Every genuine DMV sits on a state government domain, so read the ending, not the words in front of it.
• It says "DMV" with no state named. Your DMV knows which state issued your licence; a campaign texting numbers at random does not.
• It arrived on a number you never gave the DMV, about a vehicle or violation you cannot place.
• It wants payment by gift card, crypto or a "secure" link. No government agency collects a fine that way.
• There is a deadline measured in hours. Urgency is doing the work here, because a day's delay would be enough for you to check your own record and find nothing.

What to do now

1. Do not tap the link or reply. Replying confirms the number is live and gets you more of them.
2. Check your record yourself through your state DMV site, reached by typing the address or searching, never through the text. A real unpaid ticket appears there.
3. If you are unsure, phone the DMV on a number you already know is genuine. The FTC's advice is precisely this: use a phone number or website you know is real, not the info from the text.
4. Report it, then delete it. Use your phone's report junk option or forward the message to 7726 (SPAM), and file at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
5. Already paid? Call your bank or card issuer now, dispute the charge and freeze the card. A card charge is usually reversible for a while; a gift card or crypto transfer is not.
6. If you entered your licence number or date of birth, treat it as an identity-theft exposure and check IdentityTheft.gov for the recovery steps.