Received a Text About Paying a Road Toll? It's A Scam

The latest scam making the rounds is asking you to pay a toll through a text. It might look real, but there are a few red flags to watch out for. The Federal Trade Commission recently released a consumer warning about these types of scams.

Sandy Hunter, an AARP Utah volunteer, received this text message (on the right) back in January; it was the first in a string of similar texts asking her to pay a toll.

Sandy thought these were related to that trip. "I was in a hurry, so I followed the instructions on the text and completed the information on my iPhone," said Sandy. But within a day, she received a fraud alert from her credit union, asking if she had made transactions at a Lowe's store in California. Luckily, her credit union caught the fraudulent transactions early and deactivated her debit card.

Since early last year, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received more than 2,000 complaints reporting these types of texts representing road toll collection services. The most common are texts from scammers posing as FasTrak Lane, the company that collects tolls for all roads in California.

If you receive a text similar to this in regards to paying tolls, it's best to ignore it and instead visit the company's website online. Do not click the link that's in the text itself.

A quick visit to FasTrak's website has the above warning on it's homepage as a reminder that these scams are becoming more and more prevalent. Like many companies, FasTrak says it will never text you asking for payment via a link in the text.

If you receive one of these texts, the FBI suggests filing a complaint with its Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Be sure to include the phone number from where the text originated and the website listed within the text.

If you clicked any link or provided your information, take efforts to secure your personal information and financial accounts. Dispute any unfamiliar charges on your credit card.

For more information on ways you can protect yourself, visit AARP's Fraud Watch Network.

Read more about these toll scams making the rounds across the country on CBS News by clicking HERE.


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