Dubai: Did you receive this fake Salik message?

UAE authorities have time and again warned residents of receiving fraudulent text messages from senders impersonating government authorities.

Recently, another scam has been doing the rounds where residents have received a text message from an unknown number asking them to pay their "vehicle trip fee".

The fraudulent message obtained by Khaleej Times displays the following message: "Salik: Your vehicle trip fee has not been paid, please deal with it as soon as possible to avoid fines." The message also included a suspicious link.

There are several factors to look out for when identifying whether or not a message is a scam. Some common tells of a fraudulent message are:

The fake alert was received from an unknown international number, in this case. Whereas, a regular Salik message displays the authority's name in the ID, as seen below.

A customer service agent from Salik confirmed that messages which haven't been received from the direct domain (displaying 'Salik' as the sender) are most likely fake.

The representative also said that the receiver must not make any payments or click on any link that may have been in the text message. He added that to avoid falling for such scams, one can even download the Smart Salik app, and make payments through the same.

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