Do toll agencies ever send texts?

Some do, usually to customers who signed up for account alerts with that agency. That's exactly why the scam works. The safe approach doesn't depend on whether your agency texts: never pay through a link in a message. Look up the agency yourself, type its address or open its official app, and check your balance there.

I got a toll text for a state I've never driven in. Why?

Because the sender has no idea where you drive. These texts go out in bulk to huge lists of numbers, and the state or agency named is often just a guess, or a popular one. A toll text for a road you've never used is one of the clearest signs the message is fake.

The amount was only a few dollars. What's the harm in paying it?

The few dollars aren't the goal. The payment page collects your full card number, expiry date, security code and often your name and address. That's enough to run up much larger charges later or sell the card on. Some pages also ask for a driver's license number, which is useful for identity theft.

I entered my card on the toll payment page. What do I do?

Call your card issuer on the number on the back of your card, tell them the card details were entered on a scam site, and ask them to cancel and reissue the card. Dispute any charges you don't recognise. Then report the text to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and forward the text to 7726.

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Unpaid Toll Text Scams (E-ZPass and State Tolls)

Last reviewed October 14, 2026

A text says you owe a small unpaid toll and that a late fee or a penalty is coming if you don't pay today. The link leads to a convincing payment page. The toll doesn't exist. Here's how to check, and what to do if you already paid.

Unpaid toll texts have been one of the most widespread scam texts in the US, common enough that the FBI and the FTC have both issued public warnings about them, and many state toll agencies now carry a warning on their own websites. They work because tolling has gone cashless in a lot of places. Plenty of drivers genuinely don't know whether they owe anything, and a bill arriving after the fact feels normal.

The good news is that a real toll balance is easy to check without ever touching the message.

What one of these looks like

The agency name changes from state to state, but the message rarely does:

E-ZPass Notice: You have an outstanding toll balance of $6.99. To avoid a late fee of $50.00 and suspension of your driving privileges, settle your balance today.
ezpass-tollnotice.xyz/pay

Notice what it doesn't include: your plate number, the road, the date of the trip, or an account number you could match against anything. A genuine toll notice is built around those details, because without them you couldn't check it. A scam text leaves them out, because it was sent to thousands of people at once and doesn't know any of them.

Red flags to look for

The link isn't the toll agency's own website. Read the domain from right to left: in ezpass-tollnotice.xyz/pay the real site is ezpass-tollnotice.xyz, a name anyone could register. The word "ezpass" or "toll" at the front proves nothing.
An unusual ending such as .xyz, .top, .info, .vip or .com-something on what claims to be a state agency. Toll agencies use their own long-established domains, which you can find by searching for the agency by name rather than following a link.
A tiny balance paired with a large penalty. A few dollars owed and a $50 late fee, or a threat to suspend your license or registration, is designed to make paying now feel like the cheapest option.
A deadline of today or 24 hours. Real toll violations go through a notice process, often by mail to the vehicle's registered owner, with time to respond.
No plate number, no location, no trip date. A real notice tells you which trip it's about.
A toll road in a state you don't drive in, or an agency you've never had an account with.
The text comes from an ordinary-looking phone number, an email address, or an international number, sometimes with "reply Y to activate the link" if your phone has disabled it.

Why "reply Y" is a warning, not a formality

Phones often disable links in texts from unknown senders. Some of these messages get around that by asking you to reply with a letter, close the message, and open it again so the link becomes tappable. Legitimate senders have no reason to coach you around your phone's safety features. Replying also confirms your number is active, which tends to bring more scam texts.

What a real toll agency does

Toll systems in the US are run by state or regional agencies, and E-ZPass is a group of agencies that share one transponder system. If you have a transponder account, tolls are charged to it automatically. If you drove through without one, the plate is photographed and a bill usually goes by mail to the address the vehicle is registered to. Many agencies also let you look up plate-based tolls online.

Some agencies do send texts or emails to account holders who opted in. That's why judging the message by its sender doesn't work. Judge it by where it asks you to go instead. A real balance will always be visible when you go to the agency directly.

How to check if you really owe a toll

1Don't tap the link and don't reply. Nothing will get worse in the next ten minutes while you check properly.
2Work out which agency would actually bill you. That's the one that issued your transponder, or the one that runs the road you drove on. If you can't think of a toll road you used recently, that's already a strong answer.
3Open the agency's official app, or search for the agency by name and type its web address yourself. Avoid ads at the top of search results, which can point to lookalike sites.
4Sign in to your account, or use the agency's own plate lookup or pay-by-plate tool, and see whether any balance shows. If nothing is owed there, nothing is owed.
5If you want to talk to someone, call the customer service number published on the agency's own website or printed on your transponder statement, not one from the text.
6Report the text as junk in your messaging app, forward it to 7726 (SPAM) to alert your carrier, then delete it.

Got a toll text and not sure if it's real?

Paste it into the free checker and see the specific red flags in it. No signup, no email.

Check a message

If you already paid

The amount you paid is probably small. The problem is everything else you typed into that page. Act on all of it, not just the charge:

1Call your bank or card issuer on the number on the back of your card. Tell them you entered the card on a scam payment page and ask them to cancel and reissue it. Don't wait to see whether fraudulent charges appear.
2Go through recent transactions with them and dispute anything you don't recognise, including the toll payment itself.
3If the page asked for a driver's license number, date of birth or Social Security number, treat it as an identity theft risk. IdentityTheft.gov, run by the FTC, walks you through a recovery plan, and a credit freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion is free.
4Report it to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Include the phone number the text came from and the website address it linked to, which is exactly the detail that helps.
5File a report with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov as well, and let the real toll agency know if it publishes a way to report impersonation.
6Expect follow-up attempts. Once a card number works, more texts and calls often follow, sometimes offering a "refund" of the toll. Ignore them.

Our guide to reporting a scam covers the full order of steps if more than your card was exposed.

The same pattern, different costume

Strip away the toll branding and this is the same message as the USPS package-on-hold text: a recognisable authority, a small amount owed, a short deadline and a link that fixes it. The same lookalike-domain trick does the work in both. If you can read a web address properly, you can spot nearly all of them in a few seconds, and how to check a suspicious link shows you how.

Common questions

Do toll agencies ever send texts?: Some do, usually to customers who signed up for account alerts with that agency. That's exactly why the scam works. The safe approach doesn't depend on whether your agency texts: never pay through a link in a message. Look up the agency yourself, type its address or open its official app, and check your balance there.
I got a toll text for a state I've never driven in. Why?: Because the sender has no idea where you drive. These texts go out in bulk to huge lists of numbers, and the state or agency named is often just a guess, or a popular one. A toll text for a road you've never used is one of the clearest signs the message is fake.
The amount was only a few dollars. What's the harm in paying it?: The few dollars aren't the goal. The payment page collects your full card number, expiry date, security code and often your name and address. That's enough to run up much larger charges later or sell the card on. Some pages also ask for a driver's license number, which is useful for identity theft.
I entered my card on the toll payment page. What do I do?: Call your card issuer on the number on the back of your card, tell them the card details were entered on a scam site, and ask them to cancel and reissue the card. Dispute any charges you don't recognise. Then report the text to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and forward the text to 7726.

This page is informational and we aren't affiliated with any company or agency named on it. We can't tell you whether your specific message is genuine. Verify independently: open the company's official app or type their website address yourself, and call the number printed on your card, statement, or the back of your ID — never a number supplied by the message.

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