The unpaid toll text scam

What to do right now

1. Do not click. Delete the text.
2. If you think you might owe a toll, open the toll agency's real app or type its web address yourself and check your account.
3. Forward the text to 7726 (SPAM) so your carrier can block the sender.
4. Report it to reportfraud.ftc.gov; it takes a minute and tracks the wave.

How it works

The text reads like a billing notice: “Your vehicle has an unpaid toll of $6.99. To avoid a $50 late fee, pay by today at [link].” The amount is small on purpose. People pay small amounts without thinking, and the goal is not the $6.99; it is the card number, the billing address and, on some versions, a login the scammer can reuse.

The link opens a copy of a toll agency’s site, often with the right logo. Enter a card and it is charged, sold and used until it is cancelled. Some versions ask for a driver’s license number and date of birth “to verify the vehicle,” which is identity theft, not a toll.

The scam runs in waves by state, following the real toll agencies’ names. The same message arrives in Texas as TxTag, in California as FasTrak, in the Northeast as E-ZPass and in Florida as SunPass.

If you already paid or gave information

1. Call your card issuer, report the charge as fraud, and ask for a new card number.
2. If you entered a password, change it on that account and anywhere you reused it.
3. Watch your statements for small test charges in the following weeks.

Where to report it

• FTC: reportfraud.ftc.gov
• FBI IC3: ic3.gov
• Report it to Latchkey Daily so we can warn other readers

Reaches you by: text · Targets: