PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Pennsylvania State Police posted on social media Sunday, warning E-ZPass customers to be on the lookout for texts like it.
Although the message looks legitimate, Pennsylvania Turnpike officials confirm it to be a scam.
“We can tell folks that we do not believe this was a data breach on our end of any sort, we just understand this was bad actors sending messages to random phone numbers of Pennsylvania residents,” said Turnpike spokesperson Crispin Havener.
Over the weekend, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission was advised of a phishing scam, a tactic used to retrieve a person’s sensitive data.
The message includes a link asking people for personal financial information, threatening them with additional fees if they don’t pay immediately.
Havener says similar scams have been reported in Illinois and New York over the last month.
“For the Pennsylvania version of this, it seems the texts purport to be from ‘PA Turnpike Toll Services,’ they center around urgent requests with the account that would result in a late fee if the overdue balance does not get settled.”
Havener says people will never receive direct messages from the turnpike.
“There is a situation where if this were to go to a debt collection service, the collector does use text messaging, but these do not appear to be that case," he told FOX43.
Turnpike officials stress the need for people to check their accounts using approved safe methods to avoid being scammed.
“We’ve been encouraging our customers if they get that text to report that to FBI crime complaint center, that works with not only the federal FBI but also they then work with federal and state local level police,” Havener said.