Drivers need not be caught in the act of violating the speed limit to be issued a traffic ticket on the spot. In Canada, Europe, and the United States, road CCTV cameras and speed monitors record overspeeding motorists and automatically report violators to authorities.

The computerized system also generates citations and notifies violators, via traditional mail, of the infraction and fine they have to pay, plus the court hearing schedule.

Recently, Canadian police learned that some wise guys were making a text version of the citation notification.

One officer from Waterloo City received the following message, according to CTV News:

“Our automated speed monitoring system has detected your vehicle at 33 km/h (kilometers per hour) in a school zone where the speed limit is 30 km/h. It is strongly advised you make the payment before 29-03-2024 to address this violation without the necessity of a court appearance and to avoid accumulating additional late fees.”

The text included a link to a supposed Ontario court’s webpage.

The Times Colonist reports that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received many queries verifying the authenticity of similar SMSs that directed recipients to pay “20.38$” through an online site identical to the provincial government’s PayBC site in Nanaimo City, British Columbia.

The police told the recipients of the text not to pay because it was a scam. The Ministries of Finance and Transportation also issued public alerts, warning people not to click links in the SMS and not to share personal and credit card information.

Meanwhile, in Oslo, Norway, a visiting Frenchman’s driver’s license was suspended for a year after the 23-year-old was caught overspeeding by fixed-speed cameras.

In a court ruling on the case reported by Agence France-Presse, the Frenchman was caught driving a Kia at 113 km/h on 20 February in a zone with a speed limit of 70 km/h.

The court sentenced him to 21 days in prison, which was reduced to three days after he admitted the transgression, according to AFP.

The guy actually amassed 25 speeding tickets in 19 days, from 6 to 25 February, AFP reports.

The man “represents a danger in traffic,” the Oslo district court said during sentencing.                                      

WITH AFP