(Eagle News)–The Land Transportation Office has warned the public against online scammers who use the agency’s name to dupe people into giving their personal information supposedly to pay for their traffic violations.

Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza said the phishing scam involves informing potential victims of these supposed violations via text, which would contain a link to the supposed LTO website that asks for the user’s personal details.

Once a payment option for the supposed violations is selected, Mendoza said the user is directed to a log-in page designed to further steal more personal information.

According to Mendoza, the agency

does not send notices of violation.

“Ang ganitong sistema ay matagal nang hindi gumagana kaya anomang message na matatanggap ninyo ay tiyak na galing sa scammers,” he said.

He urged the public to ignore such text messages and report any incident to the authorities instead.

“On the part of the LTO, we are coordinating with our partners and other concerned government agencies to run after these people and protect the public,” he said.