Ministry of Internal Affairs warns against fake ‘Safe City’ messages
MVR warns of phishing campaigns circulating by SMS, e‑mail, fake sites and apps and explains how genuine ‘Safe City’ messages look.
On 11 August 2026 the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVR) issued a public warning urging citizens not to open fraudulent messages that claim to come from the “Safe City” system and not to share personal data with unknown senders.
The ministry says recent phishing campaigns have been carried out via fake SMS messages, e‑mails, fraudulent websites, mobile apps and messages on social networks designed to collect banking details, passwords and other sensitive information.
How to recognise legitimate notifications
“We urge citizens to be careful when using the internet, not to open suspicious links and messages, never to share personal data, such as bank card numbers, passwords or personal identifiers through unauthorized channels, to check the sender's address — official institutions and companies use official domains, to use two‑factor authentication (2FA) for added protection of their accounts and to report suspicious messages to the competent institutions or to their bank,” the Ministry emphasised.
The MVR added that legitimate SMS notifications about a traffic offence are sent from the sender ID “MVR‑SC”. Such messages must include the vehicle registration number of the car that allegedly committed the offence and a link in the format “https://safecountry.mvr.gov.mk…”. Citizens who receive messages from other senders or with different link formats should treat them as suspicious.
The ministry recommended enabling two‑factor authentication on online accounts, verifying sender addresses and contacting banks or the competent authorities to report suspected fraud. It also asked people not to forward potentially dangerous messages and to delete suspicious content immediately.
Photo: press material from the event
