This EZ Pass Scam is Fooling People Across New York

If you receive this text message, do not interact with it.

Scams are unfortunately a way of life in the digital age. from the never-ending calls about your car's warranty coverage to emails that look like they are from corporate but are not, scams are constantly bombarding you. Now there is a scam involving EZ Pass.

New York State Warns of EZ Pass Text Scam

The New York State Department of Transporation issued this alert regarding a text scam affecting EZ Pass customers in New York State:

SCAM ALERT: SMiShing Scam – We have recently learned of a SMS text message scam being presented as an attempt to collect Tolls on behalf of “NY Toll Services”... Real communications from E-ZPass New York will only refer customers to the following official websites: EZPassNY.com and TollsByMailNY.com...

The alert also advises anyone who gets these texts to not click on the website it sends you. They also remind everyone that E-ZPass never asks for your Date of Birth or other personally identifiable information. This kind of scam is called a Smishing Scam.

What is a Smishing Scam?

Very similar to phishing scams, which are essentially someone posing as an official site or person in an attempt to steal your information. Smishing Scams are the same thing, only through text messages. Smishing is spelled like this: SMiShing. The S, M, and S for SMS or Short Message Service.

New York State says:

Scammers send a text message that appears to be from a bank or entities masquerading as financial institutions, utility companies or cell phone service providers. It prompts the user to update his or her profile and provides a link to a website. The link may have the bank’s name as part of the domain. If a cell phone user clicks on the URL, they will be taken to a form that looks like part of the bank’s website. The page will prompt the person to confirm his or her identity by entering the name, user identification, password and/or bank account number. Some scam texts instruct you to text “stop” or “no” to prevent future texts. This is a common ploy by scammers to confirm they have a real, active phone number.

Have you come across this kind of scam?