Hot new Boston scam drops; no, the city isn't demanding you pay a $4.35 'parking invoice'

Over the last couple of days, people all over the city have gotten texts, allegedly from "the city of Boston," that they have a small unpaid "parking invoice" and that unless they go to the link in the text they will be charged "a late fees of 35$."

Alert readers will note some obvious immediate problems with the text: It comes from a non-617 number, it features sloppy grammar, Americans would never write "35$" and the link seems kind of odd for a Boston city agency (also, but more obscurely, Boston does not issue "parking invoices").

But of course, it's Sunday, I'm not fully caffeinated and so I put my trust in my Norton anti-virus software to protect me from any evil, and tried the URL in the text.

And Norton protected me, in fact, it wouldn't even let me connect to the site:

If you do have a Boston parking ticket, here's how to pay it, straight from the boston.gov horse's mouth. And who knew: There's even a city-approved app for people who rack up enough parking tickets to need an app to pay them:

Now you can pay that pesky parking ticket right from your phone. Boston PayTix™ is the fastest way to pay your parking tickets, look up unpaid tickets, avoid late fees with reminders, and make secure payments instantly. Boston PayTix™ also has direct connections to parking systems in cities across metro Boston, such as Cambridge, Somerville, and Providence, RI.

H/t Sarah Iwany.