WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is warning Americans not to respond to scam road toll collection texts after receiving more than 2,000 complaints this month.
The texts impersonating state road toll collection agencies attempt to get phone users to reveal financial information, such as credit or debit cards or bank accounts.
They're so-called smishing scams — a form of phishing that relies on SMS texts to trick people into sending money or share sensitive information.
The FBI says the texts are moving from state to state and use nearly identical language falsely claiming that recipients have an unpaid or outstanding toll that could result in fines or suspended driving privileges.
The FBI is asking those who receive the scams to file a complaint with its IC3 internet crime complaint center, www.ic3.gov, and to also delete the texts.
Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks said last week that a threat actor has registered over 10,000 domains for the scams. The scams are impersonating toll services and package delivery services in at least 10 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario.
While Apple bans links in iPhone messages received from unknown senders, the scam attempts to bypass that protection by inviting users to reply with “Y” and reopen the text.