Two fake sites copy the name, logo and graphics of the Automobile Club of Italy to steal personal and credit card data. Here are the signs to recognize so as not to fall into the trap
Beware of the new car tax scam. The car tax has been the protagonist for days, after the novelty of the suspension of payment for vehicles up to 80 kW announced by the government for 2027. And precisely by exploiting the notoriety of the topic, the car tax has become the bait of a phishing campaign which is affecting motorists throughout Italy, fraudulently reproducing the graphics of the Automobile Club of Italy to steal personal and banking data.
The online car tax scam: what’s happening
The Center of the Agency for Digital Italy (CERT-AgID), which deals with identifying and neutralizing cyber threats against citizens and public administrations, has raised the alarm. Two domains are active – acitalia.info and acitalia.click – which have nothing to do with the official ACI channels, but which faithfully imitate their graphics, so much so that they can deceive even the most attentive users. The pages are built to appear like an institutional communication: they warn the user of an alleged car tax not paid within the deadline and threaten sanctions, administrative detention and traffic restrictions.
How the scam mechanism works
The fake site is meant for lead the victim, step by step, to give up their data. The first request concerns the tax code and vehicle registration number, presented as a routine check on the status of payments. Once this first step has been completed, a section dedicated to contact details opens: from name to telephone number, up to the complete address with province and postal code. The last step is the most dangerous: the payment of a fine of 15.87 euros is required, a figure probably chosen because it appears credible and of a modest amount, which does not arouse too much suspicion. To complete the transaction, all payment card data is required: owner, number, expiration date and CVV code. Once provided, this data ends up in the hands of scammers, who can use it to make unauthorized transactions on the victim’s account.
How to recognize the fake car tax scam site and protect yourself
The first alarm bell is the web address: the official ACI portal can only be reached at aci.it, while any other domain, no matter how similar in name or graphics, should be considered suspicious. The CERT-AgID also recalls a fundamental point: to pay the tax online it is always necessary to authenticate with SPID or CIE, there are no shortcuts that bypass this step. If a page asks for personal or credit card information without first requesting access through these tools, it is almost certainly an attempt at fraud.
Car tax scam: what to do if you suspect you have already been hit
Anyone who has already entered their details on one of these sites should act quickly. First of all, you need to contact your bank or card issuer to block it, report the suspicious operation and monitor the account movements in the following days. It is also useful to report to the Postal Police and change the passwords associated with the accounts that share the same credentials used on the fake site.
