RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — On Tuesday, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) said it had not yet received any reports of an unpaid toll charge scam seen in multiple other states popping up on Virginians’ phones.
By lunch on Wednesday — less than half a day later — that had changed.
As of midday on Wednesday, April 24, VDOT told 8News it had received over 160 reports of this smishing scam — or fraudulent text message scam — targeting Virginia residents.
“It’s a big jump,” said David Caudill, VDOT’s division administrator for the tolling operations division. “And it seems like it just started last night.”
8News has received dozens of Facebook comments and screenshots of texts from viewers in the region, saying they were sent a text informing them of a supposed balance they owe a Virginia toll agency.
In order to avoid the threat of a $50 fine, the scam text instructs its victim to click on the embedded link to make a $11.69 payment.
This link leads to a fraudulent website claiming to be associated with the toll service SunPass — which is actually a North Carolina and Florida service rather than a Virginia one.
“That’s where they [the scammers] do their dark work and start scamming people out of financial resources,” Caudill said.
On that site, a victim will be asked to fill out various kinds of sensitive information, such as their credit card number. This information can then be used by the scammer to fraud the victim out of money.
According to the FBI, over 2,000 reports of this scam across several states had been received as of April 12. With Wednesday’s sudden uptick, Virginia is now among those affected.
According to Caudill, VDOT has not seen any sort of trend in who is targeted — which appears to be the point. By casting a “broad net,” scammers hope to trick even just a few people into clicking the link and following their instructions.
Caudill said that, while Virginia’s toll agencies do send out some customer service-oriented text alerts to customers, these texts never contain links. He said he wants Virginians to remember that, as this makes scam texts far easier to spot.
“The key is the link,” Caudill said. “If you see a link, don’t hit a link.”
VDOT is somewhat limited in what it can do to combat this surge in smishing texts, according to Caudill.
“What we [can] try to do is create awareness,” Caudill said. “We wanna protect the credibility of tolling — and these kind of scammers, they undermine that. So we try to get in front of that, make people aware that there’s risk out there.”
If you are sent a text like those described above, do no click the link embedded in it. You are highly encouraged to file a complaint with the IC3. Be sure to include the phone number you received the text from and the website link in the text.
Additionally, Caudill said anyone with concerns about their balance or wanting to verify their account details can reach out to toll agencies through legitimate means.
For Virginia residents, should this scam impact you, several customer service lines within the state can assist you with confirming your balance. You can also visit the Toll Roads in Virginia website or the E-ZPass website to both check and pay your balances online.
Caudill also said that E-ZPass customers can reach out toll-free for assistance at 877-762-7824.
“Really, it’s just gonna be a numbers game at this point,” Caudill said of what comes next. “Just making sure that people are aware that this text is out there and that the intent of this text is to fraud people out of money.”
