But, thankfully, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning cell phone users that a text message like this is likely a scam.
While unpaid toll fee text scams have been around for a while, more and more people on social media lately have been reporting that they’ve been hit with a mysterious message requesting money to settle an outstanding toll fee. The text might read something like this: “Your vehicle has an unpaid toll bill. To avoid excessive late fees on your bill, please settle it promptly. Thank you for your cooperation!”
But the FTC published an article on its website last month cautioning that bad actors have been sending texts demanding money by “pretending to be tolling agencies from coast to coast.” The text, which usually includes a link and a request for a relatively small fee, is more than likely a phishing scam. The links in the texts typically invite recipients to enter their bank, credit card or driver’s license information, the agency warns.
And the minimal fee amount presented in the messages is intentional. Amy Nofziger, the director of victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network, previously explained to HuffPost that a larger dollar amount, perhaps thousands of dollars, is more obviously a scam, whereas a nominal fee may catch people off-guard.
Officials across multiple states have been warning people about this scam. Attorney General of Virginia Jason Miyares, whose own office recently faced a cyberattack, warned Virginians of the unpaid toll fee text scam in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
The New York Police Department’s 19th Precinct similarly released a statement on X earlier this week warning New Yorkers not to click any links in texts asking for unpaid toll money.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a statement last year saying that its Internet Crime Complaint Center had received over 2,000 complaints from people who received the unpaid toll text scam.
