Is an 'unpaid toll' text a real notice?

Toll-fee phishing texts (sometimes called 'smishing') claim you have an outstanding toll balance and threaten fines or licence suspension if you don't pay immediately via a link. The link leads to a convincing fake payment page that captures your card details.

Genuine toll notices are issued by recognised highway authorities or toll operators and typically arrive by post or through a registered account you signed up to. If you do drive roads with electronic tolling, check your balance by going directly to the toll operator's official website — not via any link in a text. In the United States, the FBI and FTC have both issued warnings about a large wave of toll-fee smishing attacks.

Toll smishing also harvests more than card numbers — the fake page usually asks for your name, address, and date of birth, packaging a full identity-theft kit alongside the payment details. The texts are sent blind to bulk number lists, which is why people who don't drive, or who live nowhere near toll roads, receive them too; a demand that doesn't match your actual travel is a tell in itself.