Why the toll road text scam is out of control across the U.S., and Apple, Android can't do anything to stop it

The texts first started arriving on Eric Moyer's phone in February. They warned him that if he didn't pay his FastTrak lane tolls by February 21, he could face a fine and lose his license. The Virginia Beach resident did what the majority of people do: ignore them. But there was enough hesitation to at least double-check. "I knew they were a scam immediately; however, I had to verify my intuition, of course; I accessed my E-ZPass account to ensure, plus I knew that I had not utilized a toll road in recent months," Moyer said, adding that his wife's phone also received the same blitz of menacing messages. But not everyone ignores them, and, unlike Moyer, not everyone has an E-ZPass account to check. Some people do pay, which makes the whole endeavor worthwhile for hackers, and which is why the toll texts keep coming. And coming. In fact, cybersecurity firm Trend Micro has seen a 900% increase in searches for "toll road scams" in the last three months, meaning, the company says, that ... Read full article.