Toll Text Scams: I Received a Text About an Unpaid Toll. Is It Legit?

I received a text saying I have an unpaid toll and need to pay immediately to avoid additional fees. I do use toll roads, so I’m not sure whether it’s real. How can I tell?

If you’ve driven on a toll road recently, a message about an outstanding balance might not seem unusual. Unfortunately, scammers are counting on exactly that.

An unpaid toll text scam typically involves a message claiming you owe a relatively small amount for unpaid tolls. The text may include a deadline, threaten additional fees or other consequences, and provide a link where you can supposedly settle the balance.

These messages have become common enough that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has repeatedly warned consumers about them. In 2025, reports of government imposter scams increased 40%, with the FTC pointing to messages about overdue tolls as one contributor to that increase.

Should you assume every toll-related text is fake? Not necessarily. But you should never use the text itself to determine whether you owe money.

How the Unpaid Toll Text Scam Works

The basic setup of the scam is simple. You receive a text claiming to come from a state toll agency or another legitimate organization. It says you have an outstanding balance and provides a convenient way to pay it.

The amount, usually no more than $10 or $20, may be small enough that paying it seems easier than investigating. At the same time, the message may warn that waiting will result in a much larger late fee, problems with your vehicle registration, or another penalty.

That combination creates urgency around a problem that feels entirely plausible.

“That’s what makes these toll texts effective,” says Torie Cullers, Risk and Fraud Manager here at Amplify Credit Union. “A lot of people have used a toll road at some point, and the amount is usually small enough that you might think, ‘I’ll just pay it and move on.’ That’s exactly the reaction the scammer wants.”

But the toll payment itself may not be the scammer’s only goal. The link can take you to a fake website designed to look like a legitimate tolling website. From there, scammers may try to collect credit card information, a driver’s license number, or other personal information that can be used for additional fraud or identity theft.

This type of attack is called smishing, which is basically old-fashioned email phishing conducted through SMS text messages.

Don’t Use the Link in the Text to Verify

Seeing whether you actually have unpaid tolls is a good idea. Clicking the link in the message is not.

Instead, independently find the legitimate tolling agency that manages the road or your toll account. Open its official website yourself, sign into your account through its normal login page, or call a customer service number you independently know to be legitimate.

Cullers recommends treating any unexpected payment request as a reason to slow down.

“You don’t have to figure out whether the text itself is convincing,” Cullers says. “Just go around it. Pull up the toll company’s website yourself or call a number you already trust. If you really owe something, you should be able to confirm it without using anything in that message.”

In other words, don’t use the phone numbers, links, or contact information contained in the suspicious message to verify whether that same message is legitimate.

This is particularly important because communication practices can vary between toll providers. For example, the Texas Department of Transportation currently warns that TxTag/TxDOT does not send texts or emails regarding past-due or outstanding toll balances. Other tolling organizations, like the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, may offer legitimate text notifications for certain account activity.

That means a blanket rule like “toll agencies never text” is not enough to protect you. The safer rule is simpler: If a text unexpectedly asks you to pay, verify the balance somewhere else before doing anything.

Signs That Your Toll Text Is a Scam

A strange phone number or awkward wording can sometimes help you spot a scam, but scammers are getting better at making messages look legitimate. A more useful clue is what the message is asking you to do.

Be especially cautious when an unexpected toll text:

• Includes a link and asks you to enter payment or personal information.
• Tells you that you have only a short amount of time to pay.
• Threatens a large late fee or serious consequence (such as driver’s license suspension or jail time) over a relatively small balance.
• Directs you to a website that resembles a toll agency’s name but isn’t its normal website.
• The website’s domain is close to — but not quite — the real tolling agency’s name, such as an extra word, a different ending, or a misspelling.
• The text asks for payment through gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency.
• Encourages you to resolve the issue entirely through contact information provided in the text.
• Arrives even though you haven’t driven on a toll road recently or don’t have an account with the agency named in the text

Of course, none of these signs needs to appear for a message to be fraudulent. And the absence of obvious spelling mistakes or strange formatting doesn’t make a text legitimate.

“People sometimes look for one giveaway, like bad grammar or a weird phone number,” Cullers says. “Those things can help, but scammers can clean those up. I’d pay more attention to whether the message is creating pressure and pushing you to click or pay right away.”

Your best defense is still independent verification.

What should I do with a suspicious unpaid toll text?

If you receive a message you believe is an unpaid toll text scam, avoid clicking the link or replying to the sender.

Check your toll account separately to make sure you don’t actually have a legitimate balance that needs attention. Once you’ve confirmed the message is fraudulent, you can use your phone’s “report junk” feature or forward the message to 7726 (SPAM), which the FTC recommends for reporting unwanted scam texts. You can also report fraud directly to the FTC.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center also recommends including the sender’s phone number and the fraudulent website address when reporting toll-related smishing attempts.

After you’ve reported it, delete the message. It’s also a good habit to block the sender’s number after reporting it. Scammers frequently reuse or recycle numbers for the same campaign, and blocking helps cut down on repeat attempts.

What if I already clicked the link?

Clicking a suspicious link doesn’t necessarily mean a scammer has your financial information. What you do next depends on what happened after you clicked.

If you entered a username or password, change that password immediately anywhere you’ve reused it. If you submitted debit or credit card information, contact the financial institution that issued the card and explain what happened, review your accounts for transactions you don’t recognize, and continue monitoring them.

And if you provided more sensitive personal information, such as a Social Security number or driver’s license information, consider taking additional identity theft precautions.

Cullers says that the important thing is not to freeze up because you’re embarrassed or worried you made a mistake. “If you entered information or made a payment, reach out to your financial institution as soon as you can. The sooner we know what happened, the sooner we can help you figure out what needs to happen next,” she says.

When in Doubt, Take the Long Way Around

The inconvenience of an unpaid toll can make a payment link tempting, especially when the amount is only a few dollars. But a legitimate balance will still be there after you take a few minutes to verify it independently.

Rather than asking, “Does this text look real?” ask a different question: Can I confirm this without interacting with the text at all?

Open the toll provider’s website yourself, sign into the account you normally use, or contact the organization through a trusted phone number. If there’s really an unpaid toll, you can take care of it there. If there isn’t, you’ve avoided giving a scammer exactly what they were hoping you’d hand over.