“You have an unpaid toll”

[Toll authority]: You have an outstanding toll of $6.99. To avoid a late fee of $50.00, please pay at [link]

This one exploded through 2025 and 2026, and it's cleverer than the package version.

Why it works better than it should. Most people genuinely don't know whether they've paid a toll. You drive under a gantry, there's no barrier, no ticket, nothing happens — and the charge turns up on a statement weeks later, or on an account you set up once and never looked at again. The scam isn't asking you to believe something unlikely. It's asking you to believe something you already half-suspect.

And the amounts are calibrated: small enough to pay without thinking, with a bigger penalty attached to make paying now feel like the careful choice.

How to tell

1. Toll authorities don't send payment links by text to people who never signed up for text alerts. If you've never given them your mobile number, ask yourself how they got it.
2. The link is never the real agency. Real ones are short, official, and end in .com or .gov — ezpassny.com, thetollroads.com, sunpass.com. Scam ones tack on words: ezpass-billing.vip, fastrak-notice.info, tolls-pay.top.
3. They text everyone, everywhere. If you get an E-ZPass demand and you live in Arizona, that's your answer. The senders don't know where you are.

What to do

1. Don't tap it.
2. If you want to be sure, go to the toll authority's real site yourself — type it into the browser — and check the account there. It takes a minute and it's definitive.
3. Report and delete. On most phones, “Report Junk” under the message does both.