One scam I’ve actually experienced myself was a fake traffic-toll notice. Basically, the whole point of it was to make me think I owed money for driving through one of those automatic toll lanes. The scammers wanted me to panic and pay without really thinking about it, so they could take my card information.
I got a message saying I had to pay for a bridge toll. The kind where you just drive through and it charges you automatically. The notice said I went over the bridge on a Tuesday, but I only ever drive across it on weekends, so that immediately seemed weird. I ignored it, but a few weeks later I got another message saying I still hadn’t paid. By then, I honestly forgot about the first one, but the timing didn’t make sense. If it were real, they would’ve reached out way sooner and in a more official way. Still, I could easily see how someone who crosses that bridge every day for work might believe it. It looked real enough at first glance.
How the Scam Tried to Trick Me
The scammers tried pretty hard to make the message look legit. It had:
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A fake “reference number”
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Formal-sounding language
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A link that kind of looked like an official website
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A warning saying I needed to pay now or I’d get a fee
They really rely on people seeing something urgent and just reacting to it without double-checking anything.
How I Realized It Was Fake
Once I actually thought about it, there were a bunch of signs:
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Real toll companies don’t randomly text you out of nowhere.
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The date was wrong, I never drive there on Tuesdays.
- The website link wasn’t a .gov or anything official.
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They waited weeks to message me again, which doesn’t happen with real toll violations.
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Nothing showed up on the real toll website when I checked.
How Someone Could Avoid Falling for This
If someone gets a text like this, here are some ways to tell if it’s real:
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Go to the real toll agency website yourself — don’t click their link.
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Check your actual toll account or payment history.
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Look up if similar scams have been reported.
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Pay attention to the phone number and the website they use.
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Ask someone else before you pay anything.
Why It Matters
Scams like this work because they sound believable. Most people have driven through a toll at some point, so getting a message about one doesn’t feel weird. But taking a second to question it and check a few details can save you from getting scammed.
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