When Ray Dubicki received a text message Thursday about an unpaid parking ticket from a number claiming to be the city of Annapolis, he knew something was wrong.

Dubecki, 48, has not lived in Anne Arundel County for more than a decade. Instead, he was in Seattle, having moved there from the Glen Burnie area in 2013.

“This is a final reminder from City of Annapolis regarding the unpaid parking invoice. A daily $35 overdue fee will be charged if the payment is not made today,” said one of the messages Dubecki shared with the Capital Gazette. A link purportedly to pay follows.

“It is one of those things that just popped up on text message and it catches your attention because you look at it and you’re like, ‘Oh, city of Annapolis is telling me I owe for parking.’ And one of those things, ‘Did I screw up when we visited family last year? Did I do something weird?’ And I was like, ‘No, we haven’t been to Annapolis in a minute.’ So I looked at the actual URL that they sent along, and it’s such a garbage one,” he said.

The city and its parking vendors SP+ and Premium Parking do not send notices of unpaid parking tickets or fines through text or email. Tickets are either placed on the vehicle’s windshield or mailed to the registered owner. SP+ and Premium Parking both declined requests for comment.

Reports of the phishing scam began Wednesday when Annapolis officials were inundated with inquiries about the bogus messages, according to Michelle Stephenson, spokesperson for the city. The texts are “very similar to the ones that went around toward the end of 2024 regarding tolls/EZ-Pass,” Stephenson said in an email. The mayor’s office received “a couple hundred calls” Thursday through Sunday about the scam, she said.

The scam is connected to overseas phone numbers in either the Philippines or Norway, according to Stephenson. It is unclear how the data was obtained, said Kortlan Jackson, spokesperson for the Annapolis Police Department, which said it is investigating the phishing scam.

“Locals are definitely getting it, but plenty [of reports] are arriving [from] people who have never even visited Annapolis,” Stephenson said.

Reports of the phishing scam came days before the Anne Arundel County government closed its offices on Monday to investigate a “cyber incident” that began disrupting county services Saturday, although 911 and 311 continued working. County officials said Sunday they are taking a “proactive approach” to ensure systems are safe, such as limiting internet access until the government is able to return to full operations.

The city says the phishing scam is unrelated to the ongoing cyber-attack on the county government.

“These are totally two different things,” Stephenson said Monday.

The city is asking those who believe they were scammed by the phishing attempt to notify the Annapolis Police Department at 410-268-414.

Have a news tip? Contact Megan Loock at mloock@baltsun.com or 443-962-5771.