FBI Warning of New Text Scam in Arizona: “Always Fraudulent!”

In the digital age, most of us are savvy to the myriad scams floating around the 'net. That is why scammers continually refine their tactics and devise new strategies to continue scamming us.

There's an expression: even a broken clock is right twice a day. This is essentially the tactic scammers use to separate us (and your elderly parents) from our hard-earned money.

Why Text Message Scams Work in Arizona

We have a lot of what I like to think of as "digital pollution" in our lives. Junk emails, spam text messages, and unsolicited phishing phone calls. Those smarmy senders are all casting a wide net, hoping you'll send them your money.

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If you've ever gotten the message about your car's extended warranty, you know what I'm talking about. I drive an old car, and when I bought it, the warranty had already long since expired. But suppose my car was only a few years old. Would the message have made sense to me, enough that I might have acted on it?

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When You Get the "Your Unpaid Toll" Text Message in Arizona

There's a somewhat new scam making the rounds of our digital domain. The FBI and the Cochise County Sheriff's Office in Arizona are warning that these fraudulent text messages are always a scam.

Let me make it easy on you. Here's a list of all the toll roads in Arizona:

According to TollGuru.com, Arizona doesn't have any toll roads. Zip, zero, nada. Since I haven't traveled outside of the Grand Canyon State recently, the first time I got one of these messages, I just scoffed, deleted the message, and moved on.

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Then my daughter spent time in another state. A state that not only has toll roads but unavoidable toll roads, which meant she had to buy a toll pass in order to get to work and back every day. She was on a college internship, so I used my credit card to pay for the pass.

Shortly after she returned to Arizona, I got that message, the one that read, "You have unpaid tolls." The message quoted an exact amount I owed and said my driver's license would be revoked if I didn't pay the arrears.

Then it provided me with a convenient link where I could easily settle the debt.  How helpful, I thought.

Even though we don't have toll roads in Arizona, the proverbial "broken clock" was right this time. I called my daughter to make sure I wasn't missing something. My instincts were right: there were no unpaid tolls on our end. This was a scam.

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Even in Arizona, consumers have fallen for this scam. You can see how I almost fell for it. The situation lined up for my family, and I was almost snared in the scammer's net.

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Despite repeated alerts from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, there are people in Arizona and the rest of the US who continue to fall victim to these attacks. Victims have lost their data, money, and some have even lost their identities.

The FBI says: Always consider these text messages to be a scam. They're always fake.

If there's even a remote chance you could owe unpaid tolls, don't engage with the message. Instead, contact toll operators through official channels.

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It won't end there. Haters gonna hate. Scammers gonna scam. There will always be new attacks, and there will always be shady characters trying to separate us from our money.

Be cautious and have conversations with the elderly cell phone users you know. Let them know what to look out for so they can identify a scam message. Use this as your best practice: Never reply, never engage, always delete.

How To Report Spam Text Messages in Arizona

• Copy the message and forward it to 7726 (SPAM), so your wireless provider can spot and block similar messages in the future.
• Use the spam blocking and reporting feature on your cell phone.
• Report the message to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at ReportFraud.ftc.gov

Sources: FBI.gov | Facebook: Cochise County Sheriff's Office | Federal Communications Commission | Toll Guru