With spring break on the horizon for many Michiganders, a road trip may be in your future. However, scammers are trying to trick travelers via text message into paying for fake outstanding toll fees.
BBB in Western Michigan first received reports of these fake toll text scams last year. Dozens of consumers reported the fake texts to the BBB Scam Tracker between April and August of 2024. So far, no one in West Michigan has reported losing money. Now, more reports are coming into BBB Scam Tracker again in 2025.
Scammers are impersonating real toll collection services like E-ZPass and EZDriveMA and creating fake companies like Michigan Toll Services.
BBB offers these tips to avoid toll road payment scams:
- Watch out for suspicious links. Most scam text messages contain a link for you to click on. Scammers hope their message will cause you to feel a sense of urgency, so you’ll click the link without thinking. Some of these links could download malware onto your device. Others may lead you to look-alike websites where scammers hope to harvest your personal information, login ID, and passwords.
- Don’t trust unsolicited messages. If you didn’t give the company permission to contact you, or you have never received text messages from them in the past, look up their contact information on their official website and get in touch to find out what the message is really about. Do not call the phone number that texted you or any phone numbers included in the text message.
- If you spot a scam text, don’t reply. Some scammers ask you to text “STOP” or “NO” so you won’t receive future texts. In reality, your reply tells them they have a real, active phone number and could open you up to future attacks. If a text message seems suspicious, don’t reply. Block the number and erase the message.
- If you receive a text message impersonating a road toll collection service, report it. You can file a report with BBB Scam Tracker to help warn others about this new scam, and you can search for other reports of the scam in your area. In addition, file a report with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov. Reporting scams helps consumers become aware of scams and helps law enforcement track down scammers.
