FBI warns of toll scams targeting drivers through text messages
The federal government is warning drivers to be wary of scam texts claiming that they have an unpaid toll bill that needs to be paid or they will get hit with a late fee.
Scammers are now texting drivers to pay for tolls they don’t actually owe, the federal government warned.
Since early March, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), has received over 2,000 reports from three states about this text-message-based phishing attack, also known as "smishing."
In this particular scam, bad actors will text a victim claiming they have an outstanding bill and then will direct them to a link that is "designed to look like the actual name of their state’s toll service" to pay the fee, according to the FBI.
Many of the complaints noted that the text will use similar language, like "outstanding toll amount." But the link is created to impersonate the state's toll service name, and the phone numbers appear to change between states, investigators said.
The FBI in an announcement included an example of a text that victims should be wary of.
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Based off of the complaints, the FBI believes this scam may be moving from state to state.