Lately, toll scams seem to be the hot and popular option for scammers. If you don’t travel much, keep that in mind if you receive one of these messages. If you know you didn’t use any tollways, delete the message and don’t engage with the threat actors.
We are lucky to be living in an area where tolls just don’t exist. You don’t have to go all that far to run into them, Illinois and Kansas both have tollways. That gives us a bit of an upper hand at defeating these scams. You see, tolls are one of those pesky charges that is quite common. Sometimes we rack up tolls and completely forget.
In today’s threat landscape, a simple mistake could cost us a ton of money. We are all guilty of setting up auto-pay or just paying our bills without ensuring that it’s legitimate. That’s what these threat actors are hoping for. Our desire to move on to the next big thing distracts us from tiny details.
As someone that has lived in several states with tolls, it’s become clear that the method of collecting tolls varies state-to-state. Now the question becomes, how does the state know where to send your bill? Well, if you are go through a toll without a booth, cameras capture pictures of your vehicle and license plates. Those plates are tied to a physical address. Simply put, you get the bill in the mail.
It’s hard sometimes to spot the scam. I encourage you to be vigilant towards any method of communication. Using the process of elimination can be a force multiplier. If you don’t drive tollways, you don’t owe tolls. Likewise, if you didn’t enter to win a free cruise, you didn’t win a free cruise. A healthy level of skepticism can help to prevent you from being taken advantage.