TAMPA, Fla. — Impersonation scams are one of the most common, and the newest one is targeting drivers.
Scammers are sending text messages trying to trick you, saying you have unpaid tolls and to use a link to send a payment by a certain time to avoid late fees.
These texts are fake and the latest play to try to steal your personal information and your money.
“I have been getting them. I think everybody is getting them… They’re super frustrating,” said AJ Woeckener, who’s received the texts before.
Experts believe these scams have become more prevalent in recent weeks.
“These scams are awful. I mean, I just received about five of them myself personally, and it’s a ploy to really get people to respond to an urgent message. So they think they cannot ignore it, they must do something,” said Lisa Smith, Chief Risk Officer for Achieva Credit Union.
That’s one of the main tactics scammers use to try to trick you—making you think you need to “act now.”
“That message got pushed to you. It got you worried, it got you concerned, it took you to a link which doesn’t even look like a toll website that you probably are aware of,” said Abhishek Karnik, head of Threat Research and Intelligence for McAfee.
Sometimes, these texts can look legitimate.
“I haven’t fallen for them, and nobody that I know has bought into it, but I think there’s a large group of people that probably do buy into it,” said Woeckener.
There are red flags to watch for to protect yourself. The main one is check to see who’s sending the text.
Oftentimes, these scams will come from international numbers.
The texts may also come from odd emails, another sign it’s not real.
The texts can claim to be from SunPass, or out of state toll systems like Peach Pass from Georgia or EZDrive from Massachusetts.
“The best thing is to delete them and block them if they come in as a text. They are scams,” said Eric Olsen, manager of Consumer Protection Services for Hillsborough County.
Experts believe that if you have outstanding tolls, it’s unlikely you’d get a text and that you should just contact the company directly.
“The companies are not going to be contacting you that way. They’re just not going to be contacting you that way,” said Olsen.
“It’s really important to know that a legitimate organization is never going to ask you to act urgently, to supply your financial information, to supply card information, PINs, verification codes, they just simply don’t do it,” said Smith.
She stresses the importance of being proactive to protect your money from scammers by reaching out to your financial institution.
“It’s really important for consumers to know that they can be in the driver’s seat if they partner with their financial institutions. They can set up alerts on their accounts. They can make sure that they can monitor their own financial information. They don’t have to be subjected to these types of fraudulent links,” said Smith.
