E-ZPass scam is on the rise

Posted 7/29/14

Using E-ZPass this summer? Watch out. According to the Better Business Bureau, scammers are posing as E-ZPass in emails and claiming to collect unpaid tolls. The emails carry viruses that infect your …

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E-ZPass scam is on the rise

Posted

Using E-ZPass this summer? Watch out. According to the Better Business Bureau, scammers are posing as E-ZPass in emails and claiming to collect unpaid tolls. The emails carry viruses that infect your computer and can open you up to identity theft. 

How the Scam Works:

You receive an email that appears to be from E-ZPass. It uses the correct colors and logo and appears to be collecting money from an unpaid toll. The message says you have ignored previous bills and urges you to pay immediately by downloading an attached “invoice.”

You download the attachment, but nothing seems to happen. Not true. You just downloaded a virus to your computer. These viruses scan your machine for personal and banking information, which opens you up to the threat of identity theft.

As always, watch out for variations on this scam. As the con evolves, scammers might change to phishing phone calls or link to a compromised or fraudulent third party website instead of an email attachment.

How to Spot a Phishing Email: 

Watch for look alike URLs:

Be wary of sites that have the brand name as a subdomain of another URL (i.e. “ezpass.scamwebsite.com”) or part of a longer URL (i.e. “ezpasspayyourtolls.com.”)

Hover over URLs in emails to reveal their true destination: Scammers can make links appear to lead to a legitimate website, when they really point to a scam site, like the examples above.

Don’t open attachments from unfamiliar sources:

Legitimate businesses rarely send unsolicited emails with attachments. Always confirm an email is real before you download anything.

For more information you can trust, visit us at bbb.org/boston or on Facebook. 

For more than 100 years, Better Business Bureau has been helping consumers find businesses and brands they can trust. In 2013, consumers turned to BBB 131 million times for Business Reviews on more than 6.5 million businesses, all available for free at www.bbb.

org.

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