QUINCY – My turn to receive the latest fraudulent “smishing” scam arrived at 9:27 a.m. Sunday when a text message appeared on my iPhone.
It told me that I owed money for unpaid tolls on state highways. I do drive a lot, sometimes using toll roads, so I might have found it possibly credible but I’d been forewarned about this one.
A colleague, Scott Bowdridge, of Walpole, had warned me three days earlier. I was just a bit late on the apparent robo messaging circuit. This EZDriveMass scam has been especially active here since the start of January, according to digital coach Grace Buscher, of Quincy. It was first reported in Massachusetts last June by the state.
The text messages claim to be from EZDriveMA, state that the recipient owes money for E-Z Pass tolls, but they are actually part of a “smishing” scam, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has warned.
Last Thursday, Scott had emailed me, “I got a text message this morning from EzDriveMA, saying I had an unpaid toll that would carry a huge penalty if it wasn’t paid today. I ignored it because it should have been EZPass. Both my mom and I have gotten the post office one a couple of times in recent weeks.”
The term “smishing” is a combination of “SMS” (short message service) and “phishing.” Smishing is a form of phishing, the fraudulent practice of sending messages disguised as a reputable source to induce individuals to reveal personal and/or financial information, such as social security numbers, credit and debit card numbers, and account passwords. 
EZDrive is Massachusetts’ all-electronic road tolling program. It includes E-ZPassMA and Pay By Plate MA. The program works without toll booths on the Mass Turnpike (I-90), Tobin Memorial Bridge, and the Sumner, Callahan, and Ted Williams Tunnels. It has a smishing alert on its website.
I checked the Massachusetts EZDrive website.
It states that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation was alerted that a text message-based scam, also known as smishing, is fraudulently claiming to represent tolling agencies from across the country, not just Massachusetts. “The scammers are claiming to represent the tolling agency and requesting payment for unpaid tolls.”
The phone numbers that are targeted for these phony text messages “seem to be chosen at random and are not uniquely associated with an account or usage of toll roads.” Just because you get a fraudulent text message doesn’t mean there is evidence that you used a particular toll road.
I followed the advice the state gives.
This particular smishing scam is part of a series of smishing scams of which the FBI is aware. The FBI has recommended that people who receive the fraudulent messages do the following:
Buscher, state and local police have encouraged people to stay alert to all types of scams.
You can contact  www.EZDriveMA.com with any questions about EZDriveMA notifications.
Looking back at recent news stories, I saw that the Swansea police were one of early police departments to warn of this smishing scam. On Jan. 10, Norwell police posted a warning, with photo of the text message, on its Facebook Page.
A few months ago, in early November the Braintree Police Department also posted a warning about a variety of smishing scams, with text messages and stated, “SCAM ALERT: Smishing cases on the rise.”
Smishing has been described in different AI summaries as a type of cybercrime that involves sending deceptive text messages to trick people into giving away personal information or clicking on malicious links.
Victims are seen as more likely to click on links in text messages than emails and phone calls, partly due to advances in spam filters.
A phony text message might claim that you’ve won a gift card from a big retailer. Or that a subscription or service is about to be canceled due to a payment issue. Or promote an app that sounds useful or entertaining but leads to malicious software.
In Weymouth, Muriel Savoy Moloney, 94, relies on text messages to keep in touch with family and friends. She said that recently she has been getting text massages stating they are “from UPS about packages they can’t deliver because they don’t have the right address.
“I just delete them,” she said. “I also don’t pay any attention to email or texts that ask for information. If it is legitimate, they will usually send a letter.” She formerly worked in a bank in Boston and has a built-in filter.
Buscher said that the fraudulent postal text messages are especially prevalent during the holidays, when scammers know many people are mailing and receiving packages.
Buscher said she has received calls from seniors who have received both the unpaid tolls messages and other suspicious text messages about packages that supposedly can’t be delivered. These fake messages always ask for information.
“The people who call me say, ‘I don’t even drive into Boston,” Buscher said. ‘I tell them, in evaluating these messages, use your gut instincts. If it doesn’t sound right, or is too good to be true, delete it.”
That is what Buscher did when she received the unpaid tolls text message.
Her husband’s phone number is one digit after her own, and he received the same fraudulent message a short time after she did. “That suggests robocalls were being used,” she said.
Reach Sue Scheible at [email protected].

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