5 On Your Side finds email from NCDMV is not a scam but sent to the wrong driver
A WRAL News viewer got an email saying her driver's license was suspended. The email was legitimate, but it was intended for someone else.
Posted — UpdatedA WRAL News viewer got an email saying her driver’s license was suspended, but she knew that wasn’t true. So, she reached out to 5 On Your Side, worried someone was trying to scam her.
5 On Your Side figured out the email is legitimate. It’s from the North Carolina Department of Transportation. However, it was meant for someone else. That raises some questions about how two drivers' accounts got tangled up.
Donna Smith is a hospice chaplain. Being able to drive to patient’s homes is a necessity. So, when she got a notice that her license was suspended, she was rattled.
"I started getting scared because it looked so good," Smith said.
Her husband happens to be a traffic attorney. He checked, and there was no suspension.
"My next reaction was, well, this is a really good scam," Smith said.
She called 5 On Your Side, and we learned the email is not a scam. Recently, civil rights groups sued North Carolina’s Division of Motor Vehicles over thousands of drivers who had their licenses suspended because they couldn’t pay fines. The two sides settled, and the DMV sent emails to those drivers.
However, it does not explain why Smith got an email.
"I’ve only had two tickets in 25 years, both of them resolved," Smith said.
5 On Your Side noticed in the address line of the email that the name Brian Mungin appears next to Smith’s email address. Smith hadn’t noticed it before, and said she doesn’t know who that is.
A public record search shows Mungin has a failure to appear in court charge for a traffic violation. When 5 On Your Side checked with the DMV, they told us a customer with an active suspension has the same email address on file as Smith.
"Why? How did they get my email address linked to this man’s account that I never, ever heard of," Smith wondered.
The DMV told us when their system accepts an email address, they have no way of knowing how many people have access to the email account or if someone shouldn’t have access to it.
That has Smith left wondering how many other people this is happening to.
"I know people that would really go into a panic and not have the resources that I have in order to check out whether their license was actually going to be suspended or not," she said.
We tried to contact Mungin but haven’t been able to reach him by phone. Records show he’s living in another state.
It’s still not clear how Smith’s email ended up on his DMV profile.
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