Drivers across the United States are receiving fraudulent text messages claiming they owe unpaid tolls or have a package waiting, and federal agencies say the volume of these scams has grown sharply. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center logged more than 2,000 complaints since early March 2024 about smishing texts impersonating road toll collection services, with reports arriving from at least three states. Separately, the Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost $470 million in 2024 to scams initiated by text message, with fake package deliveries and unpaid toll notices ranking among the most common types.
Why toll and package smishing complaints are surging
The spike in complaints reflects how quickly scammers have adapted to the way Americans pay for everyday services. As more states adopt electronic tolling systems and app-based payment platforms, the pool of potential targets grows. A driver who routinely pays tolls through a digital account is far more likely to treat an “outstanding toll amount” text as plausible than someone who has never used a toll road. That psychological hook-taking advantage of a routine, legitimate expense-is exactly what makes the scheme effective.
The FBI’s IC3 alert, designated I-041224-PSA, describes a consistent pattern: recipients get a text warning of an unpaid toll balance and are urged to click a link or risk penalties. The link leads to a fake payment page designed to harvest personal and financial information, including names, addresses, credit card numbers, and sometimes driver’s license details. The messages often use phrases like “outstanding toll amount” and impose short deadlines to create urgency. Because the texts closely mimic real billing notices from toll operators, many recipients act before they think to verify the sender.
A separate but related tactic targets people expecting deliveries. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has warned that fraudulent tracking messages are being sent that appear to come from USPS or other carriers. These texts typically claim that a package cannot be delivered until the recipient confirms an address or pays a small fee. The agency has stated clearly that USPS does not send unsolicited texts requesting personal information or payment, and that any such request delivered by text should be treated as a scam attempt rather than a legitimate notification.
One hypothesis worth testing is whether states that expanded electronic tolling apps in 2023 and 2024 are generating higher per-capita IC3 complaint rates for toll smishing than states that did not. The logic is straightforward: wider adoption of cashless tolling creates a larger audience of people conditioned to expect digital billing and reminders. No public dataset currently breaks down IC3 complaints by state and scam subtype at that level of detail, so the theory cannot be confirmed statistically. Even so, the concentration of early complaints in states with major toll networks suggests that scammers are targeting regions where drivers are already familiar with electronic toll notices.
Federal data showing $470 million in text-scam losses
The toll-text wave is part of a much larger problem. The FTC reported that text-initiated fraud produced $470 million in reported losses during 2024. Fake package delivery messages ranked as the single most commonly reported text scam type, and fake unpaid toll texts appeared among the other frequently reported categories. Together, these schemes exploit the routine nature of deliveries and commuting: nearly everyone expects packages and many people drive on toll roads, making it easy for criminals to cast a wide net with messages that sound plausible.
State agencies have begun issuing their own warnings as the problem spreads. The Colorado Department of Transportation, for example, has confirmed that scam attempts continue through texts posing as Colorado Express Lanes, ExpressToll, and E-ZPass. CDOT has directed residents to report suspicious toll-related messages to federal complaint portals and emphasized that legitimate toll agencies do not request payment or account details through unsolicited text messages. That kind of state-level response signals how widespread the problem has become, even in states where toll infrastructure is relatively limited compared to the Northeast corridor or large urban regions.
The toll and package scams also overlap with broader cyber-fraud tactics. In a separate cyber alert, the FBI has warned that unsolicited packages containing QR codes are being used to initiate fraud, with recipients encouraged to scan codes that lead to malicious websites. Although that alert focuses on physical mail and QR technology rather than text messages, the underlying pattern is similar: criminals use a familiar service-shipping, billing, or tolling-as a pretext to lure people into unsafe digital spaces where their information can be stolen.
Gaps in the data and what drivers should do next
Several important questions remain unanswered. The headline figure of 10,000 fake texts hitting drivers in 10 states circulates widely in secondary reporting, but the primary IC3 public service announcement confirms only 2,000-plus complaints from at least three states as of the alert’s publication. The gap between those numbers and the larger figures cited elsewhere has not been reconciled by any federal agency in a public document. Whether the difference reflects additional complaints filed after the initial PSA, reports submitted through channels other than IC3, or informal estimates from law enforcement is unclear from the available record.
The FTC’s $470 million loss figure covers all text-initiated scams, not toll and package schemes alone, which means the specific financial impact of these two categories is still difficult to quantify. Likewise, the IC3 data captures only incidents that victims choose to report. Many people who delete a suspicious toll or package text without clicking never file a complaint, and some who do click may feel embarrassed or uncertain about what happened and decide not to come forward. As a result, the true scale of toll and package smishing is almost certainly higher than the official complaint counts suggest.
Even with those gaps, the available evidence supports a few clear takeaways for drivers and consumers. First, unsolicited texts that demand immediate payment, threaten penalties, or ask for sensitive information should be treated with skepticism, especially when they concern tolls or deliveries. Legitimate toll agencies and shipping carriers typically communicate through established channels such as mailed statements, official apps, or secure websites, and they do not require customers to resolve urgent problems by clicking links in unexpected texts.
Second, anyone who receives a suspicious toll or package message should avoid clicking links or calling phone numbers included in the text. Instead, they can independently navigate to the official website of their toll provider or carrier, or use a verified phone number from a billing statement or government site, to check whether an account issue or delivery problem actually exists. If no problem appears on the official account, the text can be safely assumed to be fraudulent.
Third, reporting remains an important defense. Victims or targets of toll and package smishing can file complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the Federal Trade Commission, and they can also alert state consumer protection offices or transportation departments. Those reports help agencies track emerging patterns, identify new variations on known scams, and refine public warnings so that future targets are more likely to recognize fraudulent messages before engaging with them.
Finally, consumers can take basic steps to reduce their exposure. Turning on spam filters offered by mobile carriers, limiting the sharing of phone numbers with unfamiliar websites, and regularly reviewing bank and credit card statements for unauthorized charges can all help limit the damage if a malicious link is clicked. In an environment where scammers rapidly adapt to new technologies and payment habits, a cautious approach to unsolicited texts is one of the most effective tools individuals have to protect themselves.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
