this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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me_irl
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Never respond to these, even just to tell them to go fuck themselves. It only confirms to them that the message is reaching someone, encouraging them to keep your number on their list.
That's good advice generally
All the more people for me to tell to fuck themselves!
I live in America, I have no lack of people to tell that to on a daily basis.
Only legitimate reason is to help the people who are sending this (mostly human trafficking victims kept in camps in southeast asia).
Got one of these the other day. Given I've never driven in my life and don't even have a drivers license I found it quite humorous.
Congratulations! You've just won a drivers license in the country's latest lottery.
Click below to claim.
I love how they didn’t bother to get a plausible domain.
It's similar to scam emails with butchered spelling. It's there to filter out the ones with two working brain cells and only target the absolutely clueless audience.
if you don't pay they send this guy
I'd be more afraid of blinkin then little John. little John can't even swim
tbh will scarlett o'hara could acost me any day
legit looks like a text cc scam
It is!
It is!
It is
I got mail the other day from Florida saying I havent paid a toll "I" ran in 2022 saying they'll suspend my license. I moved out of Florida in 2021, and hadnt been in that part of Florida for years before that. That said... Not sure they can suspend a license being that my license is from another state. Florida license is long gone. I should probably call the Florida highway saftey but I also kind of just don't want to ever go back to Florida and forget about it
I got my phone in Atlanta but I only lived there for a few months. It makes it really easy to know when it’s spam because no one in Atlanta ever has business with me.
Damn Loch Ness monster doubled his prices
I ain't giving you no six nineynine, you goddamn Loch Ness monster
I get these too and I haven’t been through a toll lane (in my car) for over two years. I’d be much more susceptible if this was mail and not a text.
Sending a letter in the mail would cost a lot more than a fraudulent message
But that is bureaucracy in action.
I've gotten that same text before, despite never, ever having driven on a toll road in my life. It's a scam.
You gotta pay the troll toll
Wait, Android lets the link be clickable? Wow that’s bad.
Why wouldn't links in messages be clickable? (This is a scam and you obviously shouldn't actually click it, but still)
Anything not in your contact list has no business sending clickable links pretty much. That’s why scammers started asking the scammees to reply to the message and reopen them, because it cut off a significant portion of people falling for scams. 
That's a legitimate security benefit, fair enough.
I do get actual businesses sending me SMS notifications with links, and they aren't in my contacts either, but it's a valid decision for Apple to have made in terms of weighing off reducing scams vs creating inconvenience when genuine messages aren't clickable.
On a personal level I'm happy for everything to be clickable on my phone, because I trust myself to be cautious about scams and think carefully about the legitimacy of a message before I click anything.
I think actual business links show up clickable. I’m guessing those businesses either are on my mobile providers not spam list or maybe Apple has their own list of trusted numbers. Not sure.
Is this not true on iPhone? I'm pretty sure it is because my wife got basically this exact text a few months ago, which timed perfectly with us paying off some violations because we didn't realize it didn't get refilled. Perfect storm for her to believe it... Anyway, she got it and clicked it fine. Thankfully, it goes to a site that wanted you to put in more info, and at that point, she asked me, and I stopped her. Then I pointed out all the reasons it was fake, lol.
No, at least not in the past few iOS versions. Links show up like this which is why scammers say to reply then reopen it, because it will show as a link then. 
That's an interesting but subtle little security feature. Honestly, well done Apple.
Considering how many (aldult non-technical) us-users there are...Probably needed as well.
But it's certainly appreciated for every person!
Oh no! They're gonna suspend your vehicle bro.
Yeah so sad. I’m just waiting for it to happen since I can’t click on the link. So sad.