We have received several inquiries from our clients regarding text messages and emails which they believed were sent by AADT — but weren’t.

Unfortunately most could not explain exactly what they received and since we are not the NSA, we did not have access to their text or email, we could not be sure of what they had received. As we dug further into the issue we believe that some of the e-mails may have come from the DOT, but all of the texts were a fraud, or at a minimum a deception.

Fortunately, at the last minute, a client read his text message to one of our service representative and it said, “According to DOT regulations, all commercial drivers must be enrolled in a drug and alcohol testing program.”

Then the text message gave the name of the “DOT Compliance Group” and a number from a city in Louisiana. We suspect that the company is mining your phone numbers for texting from DOT public records, such as FMCSA’s SAFER motor carrier database. They are also emailing motor carriers too, as the DOT has in fact sent requests out to about 2,110 motor carriers asking for their drug program summary results.

Incidentally, this companies pricing for their services were at least 50% higher than ours.

Representatives at the real DOT have assured us that FMCSA DOT does not use text messaging as a form of communication although they do utilize emails.

There are many marketing scams out there that use the letters or acronyms ‘FMCSA’ and ‘DOT’ to help them market their materials, products and services to rather naïve people. Please don’t be scammed by these businesses.

Also note that if you do receive an email and you believe that it’s from the real FMCSA DOT it can easily be verified if you check the last part of the URL address, it should contain or end in: “DOT.gov” if not it is probably a scam.

As noted above, we did notice that the FMCSA recently (June 6) posted a formal request to 3,000 motor carriers across the U.S.

We suggest that if you received this notification please make sure to respond quickly as they are giving carriers only about a month to respond.

U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration 2012 Annual Drug and Alcohol Testing Data Due to FMCSA July 1, 2013 In accordance with 49 CFR §382.403, approximately 3,000 randomly selected motor carriers were notified to submit annual U.S. Department of Transportation drug and alcohol (D&A) testing program summary results for calendar year 2012 to the Drug and Alcohol Management Information System (DAMIS) by July 1, 2013. To expedite the process and achieve cost savings, electronic notifications with DAMIS user names and passwords were sent on May 24, 2013, to 2,110 carriers with known email addresses and paper letters were mailed to the remaining 820 carriers. You are urged to submit required data electronically in DAMIS. For more information see: www.dot.gov/odapc/MISreporting