Any Recourse for a Citation That Wasn’t Delivered to Me?

I got a random text message today saying a collections company was reaching out to me on behalf of the DC government because of an unpaid traffic citation. I deleted it immediately because I thought “I don’t have any citations. This must be spam.” However, then it occurred to me to actually check online and sure enough, there is apparently a citation from August 2025 for $240. The thing is - I am absolutely certain I never received the citation in the mail because I have received citations in the mail before, they usually piss me off, and I either pay them right away or contest them if I want to buy myself time. Unfortunately, I am now past the time to contest this ticket or file a motion to vacate. Is there anything I can do if it’s already been referred to collections? Has anyone else been in this situation before? Normally when you contest, you can sometimes get them to at least reduce the citation amount but I’m concerned in this case I may just have to suck it up and pay (which is bullshit if I never received the ticket in the mail in the first place).