New Phishing Scam Claims To Be From DMV

CHICAGO (CBS) -- An email that looks to be from the Illinois Secretary of State's office seems like the real deal with the letterhead and the link. It warns recipients they need to update their information or lose their driver's license. But it is a scam.

CBS 2's Charlie De Mar spoke with two people who got emails from someone posing as the Secretary of State, asking for extremely private and personal information. They did not give it up, but it is a convincing scam.

Joe Kummerer clicked on the link provided. It brought him to a website that mirrored the actual Cyberdrive Illinois website 

"The website looks very official," he said.  

And Eudice Germaine in Huntley got it, too, telling her that the DMV encountered errors in the verification process, whatever that means.

"I almost fell for it, especially since I was going to renew my license," she said.

"They wanted my social security number, driver's license number, my weight, my height, my eye color," she said.

But when you start to take a closer look, the warning signs are there, and the phishing scam begins to  unravel. The email the letter was sent from wasn't from an official state account. 

"It was giving me some Sandra something," said Germaine.

And the text clearly didn't get run through spell check. The subject line incorrectly asks for "infromation," just one of several spelling mistakes 

Germaine said this frustrated her.

Both Kummerer and Germaine sniffed out the scam and didn't hand over their precious personal information

"People  can separate you form your money so easily," said Kummerer.

"I called CBS because I'm 78 years old, and I'm very sharp with these, and I almost fell for it. Other people would fall for it," Germaine said. 

The secretary of state is aware of these phishing scams and is currently working with the Attorney General. If you get any emails texts you are encouraged to simply delete them and not click on any of the links.