A DUBBO resident has spoken out to warn others about a scam that targets drivers by issuing them with a fake traffic penalty notice over the Internet.
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John Ryan told the Daily Liberal he received an email yesterday morning purporting to be from the Office of State Revenue (OSR), demanding he pay a speeding fine.
At first glance the message appeared genuine as it bore an infringement number and named the OSR as the sender.
It also contained two images to click on that claimed to link the recipient to attachments of the invoice and camera images showing the offence.
Initially, Mr Ryan thought the email could have been genuine following an incident near Parkes some weeks ago.
"Over the long weekend a B-double moved onto my side of the road and I had to speed up to get in front of it or be pushed onto the wrong side of the road," he said.
"I wouldn't have gone that much over, probably doing 60 or 65 in a 50 zone, if that, but when the notice came through I thought I was going to have to go to court and explain why this happened."
While Mr Ryan knew one way to tell if an email was a scam was to roll the cursor over a link without clicking the mouse to find out where it led, on this occasion doing so did not reveal much.
Thankfully his suspicions about the email prompted him to check the OSR website, which revealed the notice was indeed a scam.
Annoyed by the would-be scammer's efforts,
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Mr Ryan urged others to beware so they did not get caught.
"It could easily trap people, it's not an obvious one like you see with someone from Nigeria offering an inheritance or something like that," he said.
"In fact, where it says you only just exceeded the speed limit, you immediately think, that's lucky, it could've been much worse. It potentially lulls you into a false sense of security.
"Quite often when you hear about a scam it's too late, our lives are so busy and you get a thing in the mail, it could be something from some time ago and you think you haven't realised you've gone past a speed camera."
The OSR said it was aware of the email scam demanding payment for the fake penalty notice.
It warned recipients not to pay anything and, if they already had, to contact their bank or financial institution then the Australian Government Scamwatch service.
It also recommended recipients did not click on any links or open any of the email attachments because they could contain viruses.
People who were unsure about whether penalty notices were genuine could check by calling 1300 655 805.
