Scammers sending fake penalty notifications from Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) have become active again in Latvia. Fake text messages like that have malware links attached. Those links lead to a page on which victims are asked to use their bank data, Latvian State Police warn.
In the last week alone, the State Police received information from several residents who fell victim to such scams. The Road Traffic Safety Directorate has already released a statement that it does not send text messages to citizens. Law enforcement officers remind residents that scammers can impersonate representatives of various institutions and companies.
When receiving a text message with a link, residents are asked to be especially careful, and always make sure that the domain completely matches the address of the institution’s original page before taking any action, including opening the link and entering bank details and other sensitive information on the site!
The biggest amount stolen this way was from a woman in Cēsis. On the 11th of December 2024, she received a text message about an alleged penalty applied by CSDD.
After she opened the link provided in the text message and entered bank data, she lost EUR 1 900 from her account.
In turn, on the 14th of December police in Riga received an application from a man, who wrote about losing EUR 240. He, too, had received a fake text message from scammers pretending to be form CSDD. The man opened the link, entered the bank details and confirmed with Smart-ID PIN 2, which resulted in money being stolen from his bank account. A man in Liepaja lost EUR 200 the same way.
CSDD has already stressed – it does not send text messages to residents. State Police invite residents, upon receiving any kind of text messages, to pay attention to whether the attached link fully corresponds to the address of the particular institution or company! Scammers tend to create links that may resemble website addresses of different authorities or companies, but they are not identical.
Law enforcers remind residents to carefully check any information received, and always pay attention to the website address before entering bank details or confirming the transaction with pin codes!