Hey everyone, I'm in need of some advice. Recently, a friend of mine has been receiving repeated harassment calls from a private number. The caller claims to work for the DMV and is making accusations about reckless driving, even mentioning cars that are registered in my friend's name. Although he's had a bit of a rough past with driving, he's been responsible lately. We're worried that this might be someone from his past who is taking revenge, especially since they also mentioned a car that belongs to my friend's father, which is not registered in his name. We've tried answering the calls but only did so today, and the DMV is closed. My friend is hesitant to report this to the police due to his driving record, but we want to figure out if this is a legitimate issue or just someone playing a prank. He has an iPhone 16 Pro with the latest software updates in April 2026, and we live in Australia. Any ideas on how we can track or report these calls?
5 Answers
Have your friend file a complaint with the DMV. If an employee is accessing their database, it could be traced back to them through those searches. If it’s a scammer though, the best move is probably to ignore them. Keep their identity vague and maybe even have a laugh by playing along without revealing real info. There are call-screening apps for iPhone too, and they can app like TrapCall to unmask the caller, but it’s not free. Your phone company might provide help as well.
Privacy laws here don’t protect much. If someone knows your email, they can dig up a lot about you. But in your friend's case, it could be someone who knows him personally, trying to scare him rather than someone at the DMV actually doing legal harm. They'd have more methods than just calls to create havoc.
Honestly, hearing this makes me think voting for stronger privacy regulations is more important than ever.
This situation sounds very much like a standard DMV scam. Just be cautious and don’t share personal information with unknown callers.
Blocking the number would be the easiest way to handle it. This sounds like a scam to me, so just move on. Your friend shouldn’t engage with them anymore.
Honestly, there’s not much you can do in this situation. It could be a scammer or possibly someone exploited a data breach. Despite how unlikely it is, you could report it to the DMV or Cyber.gov.au about any potential insider threats.
That’s really concerning! Can you explain how easy it is to find this information just from an email address? Does that mean they would have access to other private details as well?