An untold number of San Franciscans have received a text message claiming they owe money for unpaid parking tickets, but this is a pretty poorly executed scam that appears to have its origins outside the US.

It was around this time last year that we noted that scam texts claiming you have unpaid FasTrak fines were popping up on Bay Area phones, and these are still going around (I got one of these texts last Thursday, and the sender was a Hotmail account). The con artists got slightly more sophisticated last fall when they started putting up fake QR codes on parking meters to collect payments.

But the old brute-force text message tactic is rearing its head again, as KGO reports that many San Franciscans are getting scam texts demanding $35 parking ticket payments, and many people receiving these texts do not even have cars or park anywhere in the city.

Scam, right? I don’t even have a car
byu/hjhhh888 insanfrancisco

One Redditor posted receiving the scam text message on Tuesday, with wording consistent with the message “This is a final reminder from City of San Francisco regarding the unpaid parking invoice. A $35 daily overdue fee will be charged if payment is not made today.”

In fact, more than 20 people responded to the above post saying they’d gotten the same text. And as many have pointed out, the sender has a “514” area code that is assigned to Montreal, Quebec. (Though maybe the number is spoofed, and they got the “415” backward?)

Either way, the SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) has acknowledged they are aware of these texts, and reminds you that they are a scam. “Some customers have reported receiving text messages notifying them of unpaid parking citations and providing a link to a website where they can pay,” that agency says. “This website is fraudulent and not related to the SFMTA. Please do not use this link to pay any citation. The SFMTA does not request payment by text with a link to a website.”

The SFMTA posted their own example of this ruse, and indeed, the specimen they posted also originates from the 514 area code.

Either way, we checked the “parkingcityofsanfrancisco.com” website listed in the text, and the website has already been disabled. (If you've already regrettably paid, SFMTA says to “consider contacting your bank or credit card company immediately to report the charges.”

The site is registered anonymously, with the only identifiable information being a web-hosting service called NiceNIC. And unsurprisingly, this hosting service advertises the ability to “Register Domain with Bitcoin & Crypto.”

Related: Avoid Being Scammed By Fake FasTrak Texts Telling You to Pay Penalties [SFist]

Image: hjhhh888 via Reddit