ATLANTA — People across Georgia are getting texts that claim you have an unpaid toll and if you do not act fast you could face big fines or even lose your driver’s license.
They link to legitimate looking websites, but they are coming from scammers.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this seems like legit, so I need to click the link and go pay for it.’ But do not click that link. It’s a scam,” said Mason Miller, who lives in Newnan.
His father Matt quickly stepped in and started calling their bank and credit card companies after his son entered his credit card information in the link that came with a text about an unpaid toll.
“We had to cancel cards immediately because he tried to pay it. Luckily the card company stopped it, but we changed them all out anyway,” Matt Miller said.
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The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning to consumers about the scam texts. Other starts were hit hard around the holidays.
In recent days, the scammers seem to be targeting Georgia.
Andrew Somoza, who lives in Buckhead, thought the text message was legitimate at first glance.
“The first thing I thought was that my wife didn’t pay our toll bill or, I have three daughters that travel a lot, so someone somewhere went through a toll,” Somoza said.
Jon Clay is with the cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, which has seen a 900% increase in searches for “toll road scams” in the last three months.
“Peach Pass is not going to send their customers a text message with a link asking them to pay their tolls,” Clay said.
That’s why even though Somoza was worried about an unpaid toll, he did not click the link.
“Now I’m trying to not click on anything. So, it could have been legit. But at the same time, I immediately said, no way,” Somoza said.
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