The "ETC Business Reminder" SMS contains an unknown web link, and the money will be transferred after the owner clicks the operation
Your ETC has expired? Beware of this scam SMS!
The police reminded you not to use unknown text messages, phone calls, or web links to handle ETC services
News from our newspaper (Reporter Li Guo, intern Deng Xinyun, Zhang Yongyan) "Dear car owner! Your ETC account will expire tomorrow. In order to avoid affecting traffic, you need to upgrade again. Please log in to the website to complete the application!" Recently, from Chongqing City Mr. Huang, the owner of the car in Luotian Town, Wanzhou District, received such a text message.
After clicking on the link attached to the text message and following the prompts to enter personal information such as the license plate number, ETC binding deduction bank account number, transaction password, and mobile phone number, he realized that something was wrong, and went to the Luotian Town Police Station to consult the police.
The police told him that this was a typical ETC fraudulent text message.
On December 1, Jiang Xingsheng, political commissar of the Criminal Special Affairs Division of the Criminal Investigation Headquarters of Chongqing Public Security Bureau, told a reporter from Workers’ Daily that from January to November this year alone, Chongqing Police Convenience had received hundreds of reports of ETC fraud. The amount of victims defrauded ranges from several thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.
The number of reports received during holidays will be higher than usual.
Not only in Chongqing, but in recent times, police anti-fraud early warning platforms across the country have successively received early warning messages about ETC fraud. Many people reported that they received ETC business reminder text messages from "China ETC" and "Traffic Management Bureau" and other "institutions". It contains links to unidentified web pages, which are suspected to be fraudulent text messages.
One of the common scams of ETC is that scammers send text messages to the user’s mobile phone number in a “widespread network” manner, and guide the car owner to click on the message attached to the text message on the grounds that the ETC is abnormal, expired, needs to be upgraded, or is about to be suspended. Link.
Entering the link, people found that it was a counterfeit website with a high degree of similarity to the official ETC website.
The page requires the car owner to enter his name, ID number, bank card account password, etc. From this, the fraudsters obtain the withdrawal information of the car owner.
When the car owner enters the so-called verification code from the "ETC Certification Center", the fraudsters will successfully transfer the money from the car owner's bank account.
In fact, this verification code is the bank's debit verification code.
Of course, not all text messages that inform ETC of abnormalities are fraudulent text messages.
Chongqing Expressway ETC customer service staff told reporters: "We will also send information to inform users that ETC is abnormal, but will clearly inform users that they need to go to nearby outlets to handle related business, and will not allow users to click on links to provide personal information."
The reporter learned that there is no such thing as an "expired or invalidated" ETC account. There is no need to operate a bank account for renewal, invalid activation, and system upgrades of ETC on-board equipment.
If the equipment is abnormal, the local expressway ETC WeChat official account will push relevant information to the customer and inform the handling location.
Therefore, when dealing with ETC business, citizens can call the official hotline if they have any questions, or they can go directly to the local branch.
The police remind car owners not to use unknown text messages, phone calls, or web links to handle ETC services. In principle, official text messages will not contain links.
When the above situation occurs, check with ETC company and process it through ETC official channels. Do not disclose sensitive personal information to others at will.
If you find that you have been defrauded, you should report it as soon as possible, and the police or relevant banking institutions will freeze the funds.