An Overview of Toll Road Scams with John Marshall Bank
Taking a toll road is usually avoidable, but lately, it feels like getting fraudulent texts about unpaid tolls are impossible to dodge. These toll road scams surfaced last April (2024), and then faded, but have spiked up again this March (2025). Like with fraudulent emails, the best course of action when receiving these texts is to ignore, and delete. Responding can confirm to the scammer that your phone is active which can lead to increased spam attempts and even identity theft, while clicking the link which is usually included in these texts can open your phone up to fast-acting and dangerous malware.
Now, if you actively avoid toll roads, then it’s easy and relatively safe to assume that a text warning you of unpaid tolls is completely fraudulent. But, if you regularly or semi-regularly take toll roads, then it might be a little scary to just ignore it, especially because these types of texts sometimes threaten legal action or a report to the DMV.
To keep yourself safe from these scam attempts, there’s a few things you can and should do, the first of which is recognizing what these messages look like. For your knowledge, below is a copy of what a toll road scam text may say. The exact message was sent to a JMB teammate but don’t worry, they didn’t interact with it and promptly deleted the message after writing down the contents:
“The Toll Roads Notice of Toll Evasion: You have an unpaid toll bill on your account. To avoid late fees, pay within 12 hours, or the late fees will be increased and reported to the DMV.
FRAUDULENT LINK*
(Please reply Y, then exit the text message and open it again to activate the link, or copy the link to your Safari browser and open it)
The Toll Roads team wishes you a great day!”
*The actual link was omitted for safety reasons.
In the above message, there’s a few things about it that stand out as a fraud attempt:
- Not shown in our recreation, but the message was sent from a non-American phone number in the following format: +22 4444 666666. Scammers tend to use non-American phone numbers because they’re more difficult to trace back to the scammer.
- Also not shown in our recreation, but the message was sent through iMessage, not an SMS (normal text message). This is also to help the scammer avoid detection. Most businesses use SMS to send messages to their customers or employees as it’s cheaper and more secure, so a random iMessage can be a red flag.
- There is a sense of urgency and a clear time limit where, if you don’t act within 12 hours, there will be an escalation.
- There is a request to act by responding and then following a link, both of which could open your phone up to another, more destructive, malware attack or fraud attempt.
Now that you know what these texts look and read like, you can take the proper steps to avoid becoming a victim of this type of scam. The best way to do this is to simply ignore the text and promptly delete it. There’s no need to respond to the message and there’s no real reason to open it, in the first place. Just opening the text to read it, however, isn’t dangerous so you don’t need to panic if you’ve read any that you received.
Like last year, these types of texts may completely stop and then resurface months later, which is why it’s always good to keep the above warning signs in mind, as well as to consistently refresh yourself on the best fraud prevention tips.