WASHINGTON (AP) — State authorities are warning Americans not to respond to a wave of fraudulent toll collection text messages.
The messages, which pose as state toll collection agencies, attempt to trick users into revealing financial information, such as credit or debit card details or bank accounts.
They’re so-called smishing scams — a form of phishing that relies on SMS texts to trick people into sending money or share sensitive information.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she received one purporting to be from the statewide GeauxPass toll system.
“It is a SCAM,” Murrill posted on Facebook this week. “If you ever receive a text that looks suspicious, be sure to never click on it. You don’t want your private information stolen by scammers.”
“We don’t have tolls in Vermont, but travelers may mistake these scams for real toll operators in other states,” Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark stated in a video public service announcement posted on Instagram.
Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks announced last week that a threat actor has registered more than 10,000 domains for the scams. These scams pose as toll and package delivery services in at least 10 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario.
While Apple prohibits links in iPhone messages received from unknown senders, the scam attempts to circumvent this protection by inviting users to reply with “Y” and reopen the message.
An FBI warning from last April indicated that the text messages used nearly identical language, falsely claiming that recipients had an unpaid or outstanding toll. Some threaten fines or driver’s license suspension if recipients don’t pay.
At the time, the FBI asked those who received the scams to file a report with its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and also delete the text messages. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for updated guidance Thursday.
This story has been corrected to reflect that the FBI did not issue a new warning this week about toll-free text message scams. The FBI warning was issued in April 2024.
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