Warning to citizens from KGM against 'payment notification' SMS: They are trying to mislead you

In a statement made from KGM's social media account, it was stated:

"It has been observed that in recent days, fraudulent SMS messages have been sent to some of our citizens using subject headings such as 'HGS Debt', 'Electronic Toll Fee', 'Official Speed Violation Reminder', 'Traffic Control Violation', 'Electronic Violation', 'Toll Fee Notification', and similar.

It is of great importance that our citizens are careful against such messages. The General Directorate of Highways does not send payment notifications or debt warnings to citizens via SMS."

The statement, which noted that one of the most frequently used methods in fraud attempts is fake internet links, said, "In the links contained in fraudulent messages, in order to imitate the official internet addresses of institutions, extensions such as 'institution name + gov.tr' are modified by adding various letters, numbers, symbols, punctuation marks, or different expressions (for example, instead of the correct web address kgm.gov.tr, they are changed to kgm.htlgid.help/secure/gov-tr, kgm.ngpmit.cc/secure/gov-tr, etc., and our citizens are being misled.

For this reason, one should definitely not click on links contained in SMS content, and no payment transactions should be carried out through these links. If there is a need to inquire about debts/penalties regarding traffic violations such as highway tolls or speed violations, the transaction should not be carried out via the link in the SMS, but by logging directly into the e-Government system or by using the official websites of the relevant institutions.

In order to prevent our citizens from becoming victims, it is kindly requested that they be careful and cautious against such fraud attempts," it was stated.

News Source: 12punto