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A High River senior is looking to spread the word on a scam.
Maureen Demizio recently received a text claiming to be an "Alberta violation notification," telling her she'd been issued a penalty by "Alberta Parking" on January 16.
The text claimed that paying the fine via their "self-service portal" by March 12 would prevent the suspension of her licence, and it included a link to make the payment.
A few red flags popped up for Demizio pretty quickly, including the strange looking phone number and the fact that seemingly random words and letters in the texts were bolded or italicized.
She decided to look into the matter, Googling the phone number, which rendered warnings that it had been flagged for scams. She also determined that she was home all day on January 16, which is when the parking violation is supposed to have happened.
Demizio notified the RCMP, who told her to report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
She credits her work with Legal Aid Ontario and involvement with High River's Protective Services Advisory Committee for her prior knowledge of these scams but warns that those telltale signs might not be so obvious to others.
"I don't want to see anybody else scammed. I'm lucky, I know enough not to, but a lot of people might just click the link to see what it says... It's scary, what people can do, especially online and over the phone."
These scams seem to have seen an uptick over the last few months, with warnings from various RCMP detachments across Canada.
According to the RCMP, neither they nor government organizations issue tickets via text.