Con Watch: For Whom the Scam Tolls

Steve Weisman is a lawyer, college professor, author, and one of the country’s leading experts in cybersecurity, identity theft, and scams. See Steve’s other Con Watch articles.

Electronic toll collection systems such as E-ZPass and FasTrak enable drivers to avoid stopping to pay tolls when driving on toll roads. Instead, they simply drive through a special lane where their transponder is electronically read. The tolls are then charged to a credit card on file with the toll collector. It is a very efficient system that works well. It also works well for scammers.

As long ago as 2014 scammers were sending phishing emails to residents of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and even Canada. The emails appeared official looking and carried the easily counterfeited logo of E-Z Pass. The message read, “Dear customer, You have not paid for driving on a toll road. This invoice is sent repeatedly, please service your debt in the shortest possible time.” The email lured people into clicking on an infected link and providing personal information that led to identity theft.

But times have changed, and the stilted and faulty grammar that characterized the phishing emails of 2014 has been replaced by legitimate-appearing text messages. These messages may have been created through artificial intelligence, which makes the work of scammers easier.

Recently, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission along with the FBI issued a warning about a text message indicating that the account was overdue, which included a link to a fraudulent page where victims were asked to provide their credit card information. Reports of this scam have increased dramatically in the last couple of months.

How can you tell if a text message is legitimate? The simple answer is you cannot. Whenever you get an email, phone call, or text message, you can never be fully confident about who is contacting you. While in some instances phishing emails come from an email address that bears no relationship to the toll collection agency, in other instances the email may appear totally authentic. As for phone calls or text messages, it is a simple matter for a scammer to make a call appear to come from a legitimate phone number. Even the phony websites look real.

This is why you should never click on links or download attachments in emails or text messages regardless of how official they may appear.

If you have any concerns that you may owe tolls, visit the website of or call your toll collection provider. E-ZPass offers a customer service link for each state is serves; other toll collection systems will also have a customer service contact.