The Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Department of Information Resources (DIR) recently identified fraudulent activity that resulted in sending replacement driver licenses to unauthorized parties.
We have determined that international criminal actors used personal information illegally obtained from outside sources to create fraudulent Texas.gov online accounts. No DPS systems were breached.
In December 2022, the third-party Texas.gov payment services vendor alerted DPS to an increase in customers challenging credit card charges for online transactions. DPS Special Agents and our counterparts in other impacted states initiated a criminal investigation, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations. Several subjects have been identified in this criminal enterprise scheme.
The Department's criminal investigation into this matter is ongoing. Should you suspect fraud or identity theft and wish to report it, please go to iwatchtx.org and fill out all the pertinent information.
We also recommend regularly monitoring your identity-related information and reporting suspicious activity to local law enforcement. For information and guidance on identity theft, we suggest you visit the Texas Attorney General's website at https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection.
We understand that an incident like this has an impact on our customers and we are working with our partners in the Texas Department of Information Resources to strengthen our cybersecurity program.
A letter was sent to customers who were directly impacted. The following translations have been provided for customer convenience.
DL Security Incident – Chinese Language (PDF)
DL Security Incident – Japanese Language (PDF)