Don’t Fall For It! WA State Bombarded With Toll Text Scams!

I have fallen for it!

I'm embarrassed to say! It was about a year ago. I was (as always) in a hurry to get something done when a text message came across my phone screen...And recently they just texted again. WA State has been a target of these scams for months!

"It said I had an unpaid toll bill".

I travel frequently to the West Side of the state to see my kids and grandkids and often I incur a toll bill on my good-to-go account if I haven't updated the credit card or if I drove a different vehicle than the one with the sticker.

I HATE unpaid bills of any kind! So I'm instantly panicking if I think I've somehow missed a bill to pay.

When I saw the message, I instantly clicked the link to pay them online and went through the whole process of giving them my driver's license number and my credit card number.

Oh boy did I feel like an idiot!  No sooner did I do this, than it dawned on me it may be a scam!

Needless to say, they got me big time! And I had to close down all my accounts and get new cards and account numbers!

Please do NOT fall for this scam!

The Washington State Department of Transportation says it has seen a surge in scam texts that impersonate Good To Go!, the agency's toll billing system.

• The texts often will ask for final payment and direct people to fake websites, even threatening legal action if they don't pay, Lauren McLaughlin with WSDOT's tolling division told Axios.

This scam must be pretty profitable for the scammers because it's been a constant in WA State. Remember,

• The texts often will ask for final payment and direct people to fake websites, even threatening legal action if they don't pay, Lauren McLaughlin with WSDOT's tolling division told Axios.

WSDOT and Good To Go! will never ask someone to resolve an unpaid toll bill via text, McLaughlin said.

• Real texts from Good To Go! might alert customers about expired credit cards or low account balances but will always urge them to log into their Good To Go! accounts to take action — not direct them to a questionable website, she said.
• The fake websites might include "mygoodtogo.com" in the URL, but typically add extra characters, like letters or numbers, after the ".com," McLaughlin said.