Traffic Camera ticket email scam

[reloader]

Just a warning.
This has been going on for months in other parts of the country, but they just brought it up again on the local news.
If you get an email saying you have a ticket, it's a scam.
Don't click on anything in the email, just delete it.
They do not email tickets, they send them regular mail.
In most cases the police probably wouldn't even have your email to begin with.

 

[Jeepnik]

It isn't just the scammers who try to steal funds from folks.

A few years back I received a notice from the toll bridge folks in the bay area that they had a photo of my car running through a toll plaza and not paying.

Now the license was obscured, but their fancy software figured out it was my car. Funny thing is not only had my car never been on that bridge, but the photo was a late model SUV, not my 1978 two door sedan.

No amount of contacting could get them to budge. Then I found a newspaper article from a couple of years earlier that this toll folks had even sent demands for payment as far away as Maine to folks, much less their cars, who had never crossed the Mississippi.

The reporter contacted them and apparently convinced them another article about their continuing the practice wouldn't be in their best interest, and the fine was removed.

Removed right up until I got my registration renewal. It took another three months to get that resolved, again with the help of the reporter.

So, be careful, it may not be a scammer, but an actual governmental organization that can, even though they are dead wrong, cause you months of grief. Oh, and you can't even sue them and no one apparently oversees them.

Government for the government, by the government and of the government. Sad to think things are actually worse than they were in the 1770's.

 

[pisgah]

Once or twice a year I drive from SC up to Maine. At the end of May I made the trip to work on my brother-in-law's vacation house for a couple of weeks. The shortest route takes me for a short stint on the Massachusetts Turnpike. As I pulled on to the ramp to enter the Pike, there was the usual Toll Plaza Ahead sign, and I had my money ready, but as I came around the curve and entered the wide area where I was used to seeing the toll booths -- no booths! There was construction ongoing in the area, and clear evidence of where the booths used to be but no signs, just open roadway. I continued, expecting to pay the toll when I exited the Pike -- but no booths there, either. Oh, well.

Two weeks after I got home, I received a letter from the State of Mass. saying I owed a toll, plus a 75-cent "service fee"" and, of course, threatening all manner of dire penalties if I didn't fork out the dough forthwith. Not a big deal, I paid it, and a week later got an identical bill/threat for the return trip. Okay...

A couple of weeks ago, the wife and I went back for a vacation week and now, lo and behold, there were signs everywhere saying that if you didn't have EZ Pass they'd bill you for the toll, plus a service fee. The catch, of course -- it costs $20 minimum to sign up for the EZ Pass, and it would take me probably four years to recoup even that initial fee, all the while having to drive around with a transponder stuck to my windshield. So unless I change my route, looks like I'll be making an additional "voluntary" contribution to the State of Massachusetts in years to come.

What a surprise -- a state in effect increasing a tax without increasing it by imposing a "fee", backed up by force of law. Does the word "extortion" sound familiar?

 

[Jeepnik]

Some years back the folks out here rebelled against the ever increasing property taxes. Since no voter approval was needed the politicians just kept raising them.

The citizens rolled back taxes and restricted the amount they could be increased annually.

So now the politicians don't increase taxes. The invent "fees". This is coming to a head.

See folks don't mind, too much, paying fees for things like road repairs. But the politicians then take that money an invest it in things like bullet trains. Which by the way the politicians have spend millions on and not laid a single rail of track.

Even in one of the most liberal states of this nation, even the liberal voters have had just about enough.

Ah, for the days or Ronnie. The pendulum is starting to swing. Heaven help the current politicians when it picks up momentum. Arrest and conviction wouldn't be too sever a punishment.

 

[blume357]

I had to tell a customer today who felt like I had not given her the 20% discount offered in the Spring that I had given her a better than 20% discount. Then I pointed out that the 20% was taken off of a price I make up in the first place......

 

[Colonialgirl]

Some years back the folks out here rebelled against the ever increasing property taxes. Since no voter approval was needed the politicians just kept raising them.

The citizens rolled back taxes and restricted the amount they could be increased annually.

So now the politicians don't increase taxes. The invent "fees". This is coming to a head.

See folks don't mind, too much, paying fees for things like road repairs. But the politicians then take that money an invest it in things like bullet trains. Which by the way the politicians have spend millions on and not laid a single rail of track.

Even in one of the most liberal states of this nation, even the liberal voters have had just about enough.

Ah, for the days or Ronnie. The pendulum is starting to swing. Heaven help the current politicians when it picks up momentum. Arrest and conviction wouldn't be too sever a punishment.

AHHH YES !!

Good Old Prop 13; passed because the politicians were in one year raising the tax rate and the next year raisin the evaluation of your property which of course resulted in more money flow ALL the time to the County/state. LONG LONG ago, the Southern California Automobile Club managed to get an amendment to the Calif State Constitution** that LIMITED gasoline taxes to road construction and maintenance which explains why at one time, California had some of the best roads in the nation; Then the democrat lefties got that amended so they could use it for "Rapid Transit' which has NEVER been self supporting and has never charged fares that were high enough to even pay for the fuel. I'm guessing that after THAT they found other ways to raid the funds; ( I understand that Calif freeways are now no longer among the best ).
I remember such things as: Flood Control trying a "must have" Bond Issue on the ballot>> Turns out they had ENOUGH bond issues ALREADY passed to keep them busy for over 7 years ; A Sewer District that wanted to add a "FEE" based on ??? Investigation discovered that they had a several million dollar "slush fund" that they could spend on anything they wanted to waste it on. And it went/goes on and on and on when you have liberal dems in control.

** The California State Constitution is the longest/biggest in the nation; everything gets added as an "Amendment" to make it more difficult to end.
Calif resident 1961-1979 and then got SMART.

 

[coach]

Two weeks after I got home, I received a letter from the State of Mass. saying I owed a toll, plus a 75-cent "service fee"" and, of course, threatening all manner of dire penalties if I didn't fork out the dough forthwith. Not a big deal, I paid it, and a week later got an identical bill/threat for the return trip. Okay...

A couple of weeks ago, the wife and I went back for a vacation week and now, lo and behold, there were signs everywhere saying that if you didn't have EZ Pass they'd bill you for the toll, plus a service fee. The catch, of course -- it costs $20 minimum to sign up for the EZ Pass, and it would take me probably four years to recoup even that initial fee, all the while having to drive around with a transponder stuck to my windshield. So unless I change my route, looks like I'll be making an additional "voluntary" contribution to the State of Massachusetts in years to come.

Assuming you might drive up I95 through Md, using the EZ pass will save you money on tolls and you often won't wait in lines at a toll booth. I don't know if other states give a discount for using it.

 

[pisgah]

Assuming you might drive up I95 through Md, using the EZ pass will save you money on tolls and you often won't wait in lines at a toll booth. I don't know if other states give a discount for using it.

I avoid I-95 like the plague, using only a small section of it in NH and ME. Our route is to get on I-77, which is 9 miles from our front door, up to I-81 in VA, then I-84 in PA to I-495 in MA. Much, much less nerve-wracking than I-95, and I figured one time that it is exactly 17 miles longer than the I-95 insanity.

 

[blume357]

I think I would rather give up my guns than drive the I-95 up through Maryland and above.

 

[mhblaw]

From here in fly over country, what's a toll road?

 

[Rancher Will]

About three years ago I received a letter from Chicago informing me that I was being assessed a toll and penalty for not paying at the toll booth on I-80 in Chicago, The letter informed me that if I failed to mail the fee and penalty there would be dire consequences.

The letter identified the license plate number of the offending vehicle alleged to belong to me. Since the date of the infraction was a date when I was not even in Illinois, and the license number was not even close to any license number on any vehicle that I own, I just ignored the letter. I have no idea how the City of Chicago got my name from that License number.

 

[coach]

I once got a bill for a red light ticket and the photo looked like my license except for a bit of blur at a number that someone guessed at. Even the van was similar but different. Wrote a letter and they voided it. This was before they used an independent contractor. I doubt it would be that easy today.

 

[Jeepnik]

I received and had a heck of a time fighting a red light camera ticket. Even with the video that showed I was waiting for traffic to clear to complete a left hand turn, and the other vehicle (the one that tripped the camera) flying by on the red I needed to show the video to a judge.

Electronic tickets have so many problems they need to be outlawed. But they make a fortune for local government, and unless it's a very high fine most folks will just pay it rather than spend the time to fight it.

In Los Angeles the system was being run by an outside contractor. The contractor was sending so many bogus tickets the city was forced to shut down the cameras. I think they had to void all outstanding citations. Of course someone also figured out that the contractor had no legal authority to issue citations and if you didn't pay the fine there was nothing they could do except send threatening letters.

 

[coach]

They had the same problem in Baltimore from an independent contractor. On guy received numerous red light tickets while he was parked near the traffic light. They finally fired the contractor.

 

[Pat-inCO]

From here in fly over country, what's a toll road?

That is a roadway, misappropriated by the democrats, to get you to pay
for a road twice. The first time in regular taxes, and the second time for
using the road.

I know of only one that was actually done correctly. It was called the
Boulder/Denver toll road (early sixties) and it cost twenty-five cents to
travel between the city of Boulder, and Denver. It was paid off four (IIRC)
years in advance, and the toll booths were removed.

That same road has been paid for, in new taxes, at least five times since.
(resurfacing, widening, beautifying(?), etc.)

If you lived in NewYawk/NewJoisey, you would know them more than
anyone would want/need.