New Jersey residents warned about scam texts on court dates

Customized but phony texts are being received around the state

The message claims the recipient owes money and missed a court

A QR code is included to make a payment

Police departments around the state are warning about official-looking, customized but phony texts about missing court dates and unpaid fines that have been appearing nationwide.

The "notice of hearing" text claims the recipient has an upcoming court date in Newark Municipal Court and is delinquent in paying for a traffic violation. A QR code is included to make a payment. The message includes the state seal, the date and time of a hearing and a case number.

Edison police Chief Thomas Bryan told New Jersey 101.5 he first became aware of the scam in early March when the Edison Municipal Court was mentioned in texts. The court and his department began receiving phone calls asking about it.

"I had people that I knew from the township that were contacting me and texting me and saying, 'Is this legitimate? What's going on with this?" Bryan said.

Scam "notice of hearings" from Newark and Edison (Piscataway police/Edison police)

Law enforcement in California, Maryland, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia posted examples of similar messages.

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Scam "notice of hearings" from Virginia and New Hampshire (Grayson County, Va. Sheriff's Office/NH Dept. of Justice)

Investigation links scam to overseas operation

Detectives began looking into the origin of the emails and found that Cloud Flare and GNAME are hosting the site that generates the text and QR code.

"What we were able to do is find out is that the people who are behind this are actually from Singapore," Bryan said.

Bryan said his detectives have been in contact with Singapore law enforcement and that Singapore is willing to cooperate with the investigation.

Piscataway police said that despite the official look to the message, there are many red flags:

No name of the person being summoned

No description of the vehicle involved

No license plate number

No date for the alleged violation

All of the messages reviewed by New Jersey 101.5 all mention a judge named "John Smith."

If you receive one, DO NOT:

Scan the QR code

Click any links in the message

Give out personal or financial information

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Significant or historical events in New Jersey for March (in chronological order)

Here are some of the historical or significant events that impacted New Jersey or happened in the Garden State during March. Is there an event missing? Let us know with an email to dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

Thanks to NewJerseyAlmanac.com for the assist.

Gallery Credit: Dan Alexander