An alert posted on the Cayman judiciary’s website is warning users of a scam that attempts to get recipients to click on a link to check if they owe ‘toll’ fees.
The scam text message, which is being circulated in the Cayman Islands, appears to come from a +65 country code – the Philippines. Addressed to “Dear driver”, the message says the recipient’s journey may not have been covered by the relevant road user fee, and asks them to “check the registry and, if necessary, pay the required road user fee”.
It supplies a url link that looks similar to the official judiciary website, and claims that any unpaid payments “may results in penalties or late fees”, adding, “If you have already paid, please do not contact us – we will accept the information as executed”.
In a warning to users, the judiciary site states, “Please beware of fraudsters sending fake SMS and emails demanding payment using a fake link purported to look like the Law Courts’ payment portal.”
The warning points out that Cayman has no toll fees for local roads and that the law courts are not charging for any “road user fee”.
It urges recipients not to send money to the fraudulent link.
Road toll phishing scams have been widely reported in the US and other countries over the past year or more, with the perpetrators using the scheme to gain access to the credit card numbers of those who fall for the con.
The Compass has reached out to the judiciary and the police for more information on the scam and whether individuals on Cayman have lost money as a result of it.
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It’s all well and good that the Judiciary have posted a warning. Perhaps our legislators can put pressure on the mobile carriers to block these kinds of smishing attacks (as SMS phishing attacks are known in the world of cybersecurity).
At the very least the carriers need to provide a feature so users can report scams and spam easily, and known scammers can be blocked.
The carriers need to be providing better protection to their customers after taking our money for so many years.
Do we really need a warning of this scam?. I really cannot see anyone responding to this unless they are of unsound mind – does the Compass really believe that someone would respond to this nonsense?.