If you’ve felt like your phone won’t stop pinging with those fake toll road scam texts – you’re not alone. It seems like everyone has been getting spammed with texts that claim you have unpaid tabs for tolls. That’s particularly true if you live in Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago or Orlando which are the top five cities getting hit by these scams.
According to a new report, the research team at McAfee Labs has seen a significant increase in such scams over the past few weeks – they’ve nearly quadrupled at the end of February compared to the number seen at the end of January.
What are toll road scam texts?
If you’ve somehow not yet received one, the toll road scam arrives in a text message which claims that you have an unpaid fee that need to be dealt with. Like most phishing scams, it instills a sense of urgency and also contains a link or PDF you can tap on to pay the supposed toll fee.
The link, which often closely resembles a local toll road website or a shortened link, sends you to a phishing site that will ask for sensitive personal information such as your credit card information, driver’s license number or even your Social Security number. Inputting these details gives the scammers the ability to commit identity theft or other malicious activities with your personal information.
Like any phishing attempt, the scammers go through a lot of effort to make their links (or PDFs) seem legitimate from using popular link shorteners to creating fake websites that look almost exactly like legitimate local toll sites. They use convincing language to make you feel like it’s important that you pay immediately and these messages also contain legal terms or threats to further pressure you into doing so.
How to stay safe from toll road scam texts
The reason there’s been such an increase in toll road scams is because the scammers have been successful – so the first step in staying safe is to understand what the scam is and how it works. To avoid falling for this, you need to know what your local toll agencies are, what their websites are and how they take and ask for payment.
Always follow the first rule of phishing: never ever click on an unexpected link. If you receive a text or email that claims that you have an unpaid toll, log into your toll payment account or contact your local toll agency by finding a phone number and never use the information from the text.
The FTC has issued a warning about these texts and has said that people who receive them can use their phone’s “report junk” option or forward them to 7726 (SPAM) to report them. Suspicious text messages can also be reported to www.ic3.gov in order to keep law enforcement informed; they will then track them and warn others.
Some of the best antivirus programs will include features that can also protect your mobile devices, so make sure you’ve checked out your antivirus suite for additional security features and licenses. Likewise, the best identity theft protection can help you recover your identity as well as any funds lost to fraud after an incident like this one.
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