Toll Text Scams Surge Again, Plus Fake 'Recovery' Targeting Past Victims

Active now: another wave of fake toll texts

Toll agencies in Pennsylvania and other states are once again warning drivers about unexpected texts claiming unpaid tolls. Toll agencies are warning drivers not to click links in unexpected texts claiming they owe money for unpaid tolls, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike is warning that the messages are designed to steal personal and financial information through fraudulent links. Washington, D.C.'s Attorney General separately warned that District residents, along with people throughout the US, are facing a surge of fraudulent text messages that claim to come from road tolling authorities across the country, and that the texts are scams that aim to steal your personal and financial information.

This matches exactly what AVASC's own database has been tracking: mass smishing campaigns impersonating toll agencies that link to look-alike payment pages harvesting card and personal data, with multiple state DOTs and courts issuing public warnings. New Jersey's state cybersecurity center has separately identified over 20,000 domains tied to these campaigns, underscoring how large and fast-moving this infrastructure is. The NJCCIC identified over 20,000 second-level domains linked to these SMS scams, and the number of fraudulent URLs tied to these domains is many times higher.

Government imposters and fake 'recovery' services keep re-targeting victims

The FTC issued an unusually blunt alert this month calling out scams that specifically target people who've already lost money to fraud. On August 3, 2026, the FTC published a consumer alert describing refund and recovery scams as 'the worst of the absolute worst: scams that target people who have already lost money to a scam.' This tracks closely with AVASC's own incident data on fake fund-recovery services and callers impersonating the FBI/IC3 who promise to recover lost funds for an upfront fee — something the FBI has publicly said it does not do.

Separately, a federal case unsealed this month shows the human cost of classic government-impersonation gift-card and cash schemes: prosecutors say a scheme that fraudulently represented to victims, online and in phone calls, that their bank accounts, funds, and/or personally identifiable information were threatened or compromised, and convinced elderly victims to liquidate their assets in the form of cash, gold, and/or gift cards led to a suspect fleeing the country before being arrested and extradited. This is the same imposter pattern AVASC continues to see daily: callers posing as IRS, SSA, or law-enforcement agencies demanding immediate payment.

What we're seeing: AI-run romance-investment cons still escalating

AVASC's data shows continued activity from AI-assisted 'pig-butchering' rings that run mass romance-investment cons, funneling victims into fake crypto platforms with losses often in the five and six figures per victim. External reporting backs this up: the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reports cryptocurrency-related fraud caused over $11 billion in losses in 2025, with reported losses from AI-assisted scams accounting for almost $893 million. Law enforcement response has intensified sharply, with one industry tracker noting the scale of the response this year has been unprecedented, with the first four months of 2026 producing more enforcement action against pig-butchering than the entire preceding decade. The pattern to watch for remains consistent: a new online 'friend' or romantic contact who eventually introduces a crypto trading opportunity, and a platform that later demands fees or 'taxes' before you can withdraw.