How to spot a phishing scam

  • We'll only send you a text message in a very small number of situations, like the text message trial we've explained below. We don't send text messages for most of our reminders and notifications.
  • We’ll only send you an email if you’ve contacted us first, or you’ve signed up to receive email notifications and reminders from us.
  • Genuine emails from us come from @nzta.govt.nz, @enews.nzta.govt.nz or @reply.nzta.govt.nz
    Scam email addresses may look similar, but won’t be correct (scam examples include nzta.co.nz, nzta.gov.nz, nzta.qovt.nz, nzta.nz, nzta.com).
  • The email, phone call or text may be threatening.
  • It might be missing specific details that you’d expect us to know. For example, when we email you to say your vehicle licence (rego) is due, we include your specific details like your plate number, vehicle make and rego expiry date. Scammers don’t know that specific information, so can’t include it.
  • It might include buttons or links that are malicious and will take you to a fake website. Hover your mouse over buttons or links (but don’t click on them) to see if they’ll take you to a genuine government (govt) website.

Road user charges (RUC) text message trial

From March 2024 we're trialling text reminders for people who have overdue RUC. These texts won't include any personal or vehicle information, and won't include links to online transactions. 

They'll come from the phone number 3487We recommend you:

  • continue to check the advice on this page to see if a text message you receive is genuine
  • go to the online services section of our website to pay RUC instead of clicking any links in text messages.

Online services - RUC

Non-clickable links in our vehicle licence (rego) reminder emails

We're making the links in our rego reminder emails non-clickable, to help protect you from common phishing scams. We recommend you:

  • continue to follow the advice on this page to be sure an email you receive is genuine
  • go to our website and search for or click on Renew vehicle licence to be sure the transaction is legitimate.