WASHINGTON — A recent warning from the FBI advises Americans against engaging with fraudulent text messages that claim to be from road toll collection agencies. This alert follows over 2,000 complaints filed in the past month regarding this issue.
These deceptive messages are part of “smishing” scams, a type of phishing attack where scammers use SMS texts to deceive individuals into divulging financial information like credit or debit card numbers or bank account details.
According to the FBI, these text messages are making rounds across various states. They typically employ similar wording, falsely asserting that the recipient owes unpaid toll fees, which, if not settled, could lead to fines or the suspension of driving privileges.
The agency encourages anyone who receives such fraudulent texts to report them using the FBI’s IC3 internet crime complaint center at www.ic3.gov. Additionally, the FBI advises deleting the fraudulent messages to avoid falling victim to these scams.
It was reported by cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks that a cyber threat entity has created over 10,000 domains to facilitate these scams. These fraudulent communications are not only impersonating toll services but also package delivery services across at least 10 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario.
While Apple has measures in place to block links in iPhone messages from unknown senders, this particular scam attempts to circumvent such protections by prompting users to respond with “Y” to re-enable the text communication.
