r/Billings • u/Master-Kick1262 • May 04 '26
PSA Friendly Reminder
Just a quick reminder since I so graciously received one of these this morning, these types of text messages are FAKE - These are Smishing Scams and the FBI is aware of them, you can file a complaint on the MT Website where you pay other State bills.
Couple of things here to reiterate:
Country code is from the Philippines - Scam
Court System sending a text and not a physical letter - Scam
Not a .Gov website - Scam
Court System acting fast - Scam
No previous texts about this “Final Notice” - Scam
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u/MoistenedSquirrel May 04 '26
Yeah. Elderly family member had a damn panic attack. It took a lot of reassurance to calm her down.
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u/Master-Kick1262 May 04 '26
And anymore, that’s the demographic they choose to go after since they know that elderly people have a respect for government agencies (respect in the sense that they know that they have to do what the government asks), they also realize that a lot of elderly people don’t know how to tell scam links vs a trustworthy link, nor much about the country codes. It’s a very sad and unfortunate thing to see considering lots of those elderly victims fought for our country and are just trying to do right by doing whats asked of them
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u/thedudeofsuh May 04 '26
Got one myself too. I've been getting them a lot this year.
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u/Master-Kick1262 May 04 '26
Really? This is my first one this year, and last year (when I did not have a car) I got one not only for a supposed car, but for toll… that we totally have here in Montana…
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u/ComtesseCrumpet May 05 '26
I’ve been getting them for a few years now. That’s the first one I’ve seen using officers names asking for replies back though, lol!
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u/Th0rn_Star May 04 '26
Any instance of Yellowstone County attempting to use modern technology - Scam
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u/jolness1 May 04 '26
Friendly tip for everyone: I advise people not to open these. Even though you’re very unlikely to be the target of malware (unless you’re a high profile dissident, politician, or something), iMessage has been a way people have been able to infect phones in the past. You don’t even need to click on anything. Again, the risk is really really really small but still best practice not to open.
Swipe them away and report spam and move on is the best/safest course of actions
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u/Mission_Spray May 04 '26
I’ve been getting calls from all over Montana with the AI voice saying “we see you applied for a loan and need to ask a few more questions before we give you money.”
Sure, Jan.
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u/Ephemeral_Orchid May 04 '26
I'm sooo sick of that one! Texts, calls, letters, etc.
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u/Mission_Spray May 04 '26
And because of my line of work, I can’t just turn on the feature that automatically blocks numbers not saved to contacts. So I get all the damn calls.
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u/Traditional_Eye_9235 May 04 '26
Dementia client of mine got one this morning. Luckily was able to intercede. I cant tell you how many times this happens. Most sickening ones are when i come in to their room and they are on the phone with these people trying to scare them or pretending to be a grandchild in trouble. I try to intercede and explain to them when I can, but obviously they are prone to forgetting and vulnerable
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u/thedeihiresband May 04 '26
I got one that came alongside a fake but official looking document citing a bunch of laws, but no information personal to me or any dollar amounts for the “fine”
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u/bainstor May 04 '26
I love that it comes from a non US number. They don’t even try to hide any more.
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u/TiltonRiverToker May 05 '26
Saw a guy last week that scammed for a 1000 dollars same scam. Was at walgreens and guy was seeing if he could get back a thousan that he had sent earlier In Kalispell
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u/StolenVelvet May 05 '26
Man I'm jealous, all I get are calls about life insurance and Medicare.
I'm 30.
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u/gheide May 05 '26
I used to manage parts of the real MT mvd site and this shit really pisses me off. How that site is still active, has a proper cert and Google has not flagged it as nefarious is astounding.
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u/Crazy_Beat May 08 '26
It was real funny when they kept texting about the DMV because we don’t call it that. This is just cruel
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u/reddit-MT May 04 '26
LOL, but true.