A woman thought she was scammed in New York after getting some convincing postage by way of a traffic ticket in the mail.
In a video with more than 820,000 views, Cassandra (@xocassiee1) said she received a violation from a website called ViolationInfo.com. It immediately raised red flags. For one, it wasn’t connected to the city of New York. She also couldn’t find any of her other parking tickets on the site. When she entered her notice number to look up the ticket, she got an error message.
She went to New York City’s official parking citation page and was able to find other tickets she had previously received. But the violation from ViolationInfo.com was missing, leading her to examine the notice one more time. Where was it from? Who enforced it?
What is ViolationInfo.com?
Some commenters tried to sleuth out violationinfo.com, but they got mixed results. One user wrote, “I did a deep dive. Red light cameras are often operated by a third party. So technically, the ticket is not from the [government], but it might still have legal consequences depending on the state.”
It’s true that red light cameras are often operated by third parties like violationinfo.com, which is a private vendor that enforces tickets remotely by reviewing red-light cameras and speeding monitors. Tickets from the site can be legitimate, but Cassandra’s likely wasn’t. New York City officials only have information regarding CityPay for its parking payment system. It includes zero information about third parties that process tickets. All payments should go through the Department of Finance.
The website also warns against any text messages that come through, which is another common scam.
Fraudulent red-light cameras
There are also red-light camera scams that use real footage of cars passing through intersections to convince people to pay. In 2022, the law firm The Ticket Clinic warned about a surge in fraudulent violations being mailed to drivers. “In recent months, our legal assistants and lawyers have seen an uptick in fraudulent red-light camera violations being sent to our clients in the mail,” the firm said at the time. That year, a wave of people were scammed in South Florida.
In an exchange with The Mary Sue, Cassandra said, “I think that ViolationInfo may be a legit website, but it could be solely to view the violation. It didn’t give me an option to pay there nor direct me to the official website, but others said it did. I ended up paying all four [tickets] through the city pay website, which is the official website.”
She also confirmed, “It is my car in the photos. It did open further discussion about how many people have gotten phished, and how confusing it can be that there are two separate websites.”
How can you tell if the traffic ticket is real?
An easy way to confirm whether a ViolationInfo.com ticket is real is by checking if your city uses the vendor. Some municipalities publish advisories warning residents about red-light camera scams, which makes them easier to identify.
Otherwise, there are a few telltale signs to follow. Fraudulent mail often contains small mistakes that can tip people off. The Ticket Clinic reported spotting notices without pin numbers or with incorrect dollar amounts.
@xocassiee1 Is this a scam or what? If so, just be careful pleaseee #nyc #dmv #tickets #violation #scam #phishing ♬ original sound – Cassandra ?✨
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