Washingtonians beware! We’ve seen them before, but scammers are always looking for the next big score. The latest grift may look familiar: an “unpaid toll” text scam that’s going global.
It’s been going on for just over a year, but it’s recently made its way to the Pacific Northwest. You may have seen it; a message that pops up on your phone prompting for a minimal payment that needs to be made immediately.
However, the last thing you want to do is click the link.
It appears to be from “Fastrak,” the California-based electronic toll collection agency, similar to Washington’s “Good to Go.”
But, these texts have been showing up on phones across our state and in Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
If you ever find yourself questioning the authenticity of an “unpaid toll” message, John Goodwin says it’s not how they do business.
“Legitimate toll operators are not going to communicate with customers by text asking for money and asking to be paid by clicking on a link to a website,” said a spokesperson with the Bay Area Toll Authority.
He says the scam has spread across the United States since last February, affecting other e-toll agencies like “E-ZPass” across the East Coast and Florida’s “SunPass.”
He also notes that a new wave or mutation of the scam seems to evolve every six to eight weeks.
Meanwhile, scammer URLs have originated from multiple foreign countries, including China, Russia, and several in South America.
If you’ve been affected, experts suggest you call your bank or credit card company to put an immediate freeze on your account.
One of the best things you can do if you believe your cellphone has been compromised is to back up your essentials, go to your settings, and do a factory reset for your device.
“This will guarantee that any kind of malware that’s hidden in folders that you can’t find, any kind of bloatware that they put on your device, will be wiped clean,” says Abdullah Syed, Co-Owner of Seattle Device Repair.
Even though phishing scams like these have been around as long as the internet, Syed says the bad news is, they’re here to stay.
“Unfortunately, this is going to get more and more common with A.I.,” says the co-owner of Seattle Device Repair. “This is going to be something that’s not going to go away.”
Syed says Android phones are more susceptible because of their software, but to be wary of anything that’s not associated with the App Store.
He also says to look out for spelling mistakes and never click an unknown link. Treat every message as potentially dangerous unless you can verify the sender.
Both Syed and Goodwin stress that common sense goes a long way. If something looks out of the ordinary, or you’re getting a text for a toll road you’ve never used, that should be a red flag.
More important, stay alert. Because these scams are likely only going to get more sophisticated.