Got a Text About an Unpaid Toll or a "Verify Your Account"? How to Tell If It's a Scam

If you've gotten a text claiming you owe a small unpaid toll, that your account "needs verification," or that a package can't be delivered until you confirm your details — you're not alone, and it's almost certainly a scam. These text-message cons (called "smishing," for SMS + phishing) have exploded: the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 60,000 complaints about the toll-text version alone in 2024, and California's Attorney General has warned about a continuing surge. Here's how to recognize them and what to do.

Why these texts suddenly look so convincing

The old advice was "look for bad spelling and grammar." That no longer works. Scammers now use AI to write messages that read like a real customer-service alert — your name, a believable company, clean wording, and a link to a website that's a near-perfect copy of the real one. The goal is always the same: get you to click a link in a hurry and type in your card number, bank login, or personal details.

The trick is urgency. The text threatens late fees, a suspended registration, a lost driver's license, or a closed account unless you "act now." That pressure is the tell — it's designed to make you click before you think.

The fake toll text (very common here in Southern California)

Plenty of our customers drive the 73, 133, 241, and 261 — The Toll Roads in Orange County — plus the 91 Express Lanes, so the fake-FasTrak text lands here constantly. It claims you owe an express-lane or toll balance and links to a site that asks for payment. Two facts cut right through it: FasTrak says it does not request payment by text with a link to a website, and the Transportation Corridor Agencies (which run The Toll Roads) say they do not send text messages to non-accountholders at all.

So if you don't have a toll account, a "toll" text is a scam by definition. And if you do have one, don't use the link — check the real way: log in at thetollroads.com or fastrak.com, or open the official app, and see whether you actually owe anything.

The same scam wears other costumes

Toll texts are just the most visible version. The identical playbook shows up as a fake "Social Security verification" or Medicare-card message, a bank or credit-card "we noticed suspicious activity, verify now" alert, a delivery notice from "USPS/UPS/FedEx" needing your address confirmed, and an "Amazon" order or refund you didn't make. Older adults get hit hardest, because scammers bet on the worry of a missed bill or a frozen account.

One rule covers all of them: a legitimate company will never ask you to send a password, a full card number, your Social Security number, or a two-factor login code by text. If a message wants any of those, it's a scam — full stop.

What to do when one lands

Don't click the link, and don't reply (even "STOP" tells them the number is live). If you're worried the underlying account might be real, go to it yourself — type the official website address, open the company's app, or call a number from your statement or the back of your card, never the number or link in the text.

Then clean it up: forward the message to 7726 (it spells "SPAM"), which reports it to your carrier; report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, for toll texts, to the FBI at ic3.gov; and finally block the number and delete the text. If you did click and entered card or login details, contact your bank right away and change the password on any account where you reused it.

If you're not sure, ask before you click

When a message has you second-guessing — especially for an older parent or a small business where one wrong click can expose real money — it's worth a quick second opinion. We'll look at the text with you, tell you whether it's legitimate, and if something did get clicked, help lock down the account, scan the device, and clean up the damage. We'd much rather hear from you before you click than after.