Have you received a traffic fine? Beware of a massive new scam

The police have detected a massive scam using a fake web page posing as the DGT (General Directorate of Traffic), which victims are accessing from an email they have supposedly received from them, informing them they have a fine for a driving offence, which if they pay straight away will be 50% cheaper.

This is of course a copy of the actual process of the DGT, except that they don’t inform you by email, but is why thousands of people have already fallen for it. Mass mailings have been detected nationally, but scammers are using the email to download your banking information once you have clicked a link to enter the site or have downloaded a zip file.

If you receive an email with something similar to this in the subject: “An unpaid traffic ticket addressed to you or your vehicle has been identified in our system”, and a link to click on, police are warning that this is a scam mail.

They have warned that: “The email is hidden under the subject ‘Unpaid fine. – [ id 796422183 ]’ and when you access the message you find a notification about an alleged traffic fine that has not been paid. The logos of the DGT and the Ministry del Interior appear in the email, but neither are genuine. The next thing that appears is a 'link' that encourages the user to access to see the notification of that fine, labelled: ‘Access the Electronic Office’”.

However, this 'link' directs the user to an external website where a compressed file is downloaded in a .zip format that pretends to be the fine, under the name 'FINE (random numbers)_(random_characters).zip' which contains 'malware'. The names of the malicious files are: MULTA_000000_XXX.zip. “This malicious file compromises the security of the computer or mobile device, as it makes it easier for cybercriminals to access it by modifying the security settings of it”.

POLICE RECOMMENDATIONS TO AVOID THE SCAM:
The National Police warns that if you have the slightest suspicion of an email received, delete it and, above all, do not reply to it. Likewise, they urge users to check the links before clicking on them, even if they are from known contacts, and "be wary of attachments."

In addition to this, they advise always keeping your operating system and antivirus up to date.

When looking at the email, a fairly reliable indicator that it is fake is the existence of spelling mistakes. Scammers put spelling mistakes in these emails on purpose. This is because it lets them gauge how ‘aware’ the people that have clicked the link are.

They also remind that the notifications of administrations, such as the DGT, are not made by email they are made either by certified ordinary mail or are published in the official boletins (BOC or BOE). If you want to see them immediately, you can do so on the Citizen Folder page.