California – California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned drivers on January 2nd of a significant increase in text-based toll scam activity.
The texts in question claim that consumers owe FasTrak express lane or toll charges, provide a link to a website, and request online payment.
Since early March 2024, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received over 2,000 complaints about smishing texts representing road toll collection services from at least three states.
Smishing, a combination of “SMS”—or “short message service,” and “phishing,” is a social engineering attack that uses bogus text messages to trick people into downloading malware, sharing sensitive information, or sending money to cybercriminals.
Don’t click on links in texts
The toll charge scam attempts to trick drivers into entering banking or credit card information into a website that falsely claims to represent tolling agencies.
Bonta advises Californians not to click on links in texts that appear to alert customers to overdue toll charges.
According to his office, the majority of these scams are from Fas Trak and link to a fraudulent website that claims to be run by The Toll Roads.
Non-account holders, on the other hand, do not receive text messages from the Toll Roads or other California tolling agencies.