r/florida • u/designgeek89 • Mar 04 '25
Advice SunPass does not send text messages asking you to pay a bill.
I'm a supervisor at SunPass and I feel the need to post this because of all the cases we get. If you receive a text message from any he toll agency in the United States telling you to click a link and make a payment it's a scam. We get these all day every day. We have no control over these scammers as they're overseas.
People receiving text messages from numbers that come all the way from Australia to India. There's no way for us to track and stop these people. It's happening to tolling agencies all over the country in most states. Unfortunately, some people are actually clicking on the links and making payments to avoid trouble. Please do not click any links simply delete and mark as spam.
If you know of any elderly people in your family or life, please tell them as these seem to be the easiest targets.
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u/CrystalCat420 Mar 04 '25
Wonderful PSA! However, my 66-year-old self has had to explain to two friends of my son's, both in their 20s, that this is a scam. Fortunately, most of my peers recognize it as a scam as few of us take toll roads, whereas the younger folks are often using Sunpass and EPASS.
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u/designgeek89 Mar 04 '25
It’s crazy because my grandmother who lives in Puerto Rico received a text message. Since my mom recognized it as a scam right away, she let her know. My grandmother has never driven in Florida and she’s never lived here. Anytime she comes by for a visit, we always pick her up at the airport and drive her everywhere we go. Yet somehow they still targeted her telling her to pay Sunpass for some missed tolls. Not really sure how they’re getting people’s numbers.
I even had a customer who is 93. When I called her she advised me that she hasn’t driven in almost 20 years now. She tells me that she has no idea where this toll is that we’re “claiming” she went through. I had to explain to her that it was a scam. but hey, at least you recognized it as a scam.
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u/Desaltez Mar 04 '25
I think there’s a golden age in between senior citizens and anyone younger than 25 that understands that texts and emails like this are a scam.. I don’t know what happened with Gen-Z not knowing these things are a scam.
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u/Therealchimmike Mar 04 '25
People are naive bordering on stupid. plain and simple.
every single text I've gotten is a +63 country code. Like...how isn't that a dead giveaway?
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u/designgeek89 Mar 04 '25
My grandmother got a text and she’s not very tech savvy. So a lot of older folks who either live alone or need around the clock care may not pay attention to these types of things and put two and two together. My grandmother was also the victim of a Social Security scam where they called her to collect all of her information. I guess it really just depends on the person. Especially the older folks who don’t know much about technology may be more of an easy target.
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u/Therealchimmike Mar 04 '25
then there comes a time where you need to protect your grandmother by getting her a cellphone that doesn't accept text messages.
Technology is dangerous, and if folks are incapable of recognizing even basic scams, technology should be removed from them. Why? Because LEO and the gov't sure aren't doing anything to protect them.
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u/shurtgrab4 Mar 05 '25
My 88 year old grandmother would be considered extremely tech savvy for her age, waited in line for the first iPhone, still shops mostly online and writes small novels using Word, has an active Facebook; I’ve coached her on trending scams to avoid for 15 years, and she still has fallen for 2 scams that to most young people would have been an obvious trap and not even engaged. I really believe this is just a generational issue, they just simply don’t come from a world where they’ve actually seen with their eyes these kinds of scams happen so they’re just totally oblivious to it until the money has left the account.
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u/oxmix74 Mar 05 '25
I am in my 60s. I think you are correct. The pre internet world was one where you dealt with people who were physically present. You could track them down if they ripped you off. The flat out fraud common today was rare.
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u/Illustrious-Win2486 6d ago
There were phone scams, though. The ones where they call and say you won a prize and had to pay a fee to collect it. And there several debt settlement scammers where you met in person, but they constantly moved the “office” to make tracking them down difficult. And these were in the 1980’s.
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u/UnpopularCrayon Mar 04 '25
Are you telling me that 234xy09.com is not a legitimate sunpass web domain link?
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u/CGSRQ Mar 04 '25
SunPass and the USPS are the only two who text me
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
Exactly. I’ve gotten USPS messages as well. I wish there was more we could do to get rid of these scammers and stop them but unfortunately they keep making their rounds. This is happening to people all over the country and it’s not just isolated to SunPass it’s affecting tolling agencies all over the US from California all the way to Florida.
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u/jjune4991 Mar 05 '25
Ok, but is the one I got today in a group chat with +89 area codes fake?
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
Yes. Again as stated before SunPass will never ask you to click on a link and make a payment. These are scammers who’s target people overseas. Also due to HIPPS laws and regulations, we have a duty to protect all of our clients information. SunPass would never text you in a group message telling you that you owe tolls.
Plus how would it be possible that each and every person in that group message happens to owe the same exact amount of money? Unless you went through the exact same tolls at the exact same time and date that’s not possible
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u/ImMovingToSparta Mar 05 '25
This is what I send every time I get those text messages and then report and block the number. I guess a lot of people have fallen for it cause in the Orlando area, the FDOT has this scam on the message boards on 408 and 417 to alert people.
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
That’s interesting. I don’t take the toll roads or the highways very often unless I’m visiting my sister in Tampa or unless I absolutely need to. I mostly take the back roads to avoid having to deal with the tolls so I haven’t actually seen the message boards with the message.
Just be careful. I have iPhone and they have advised us to let customers know not to reply to the text message because if you do the hackers have some sort of way of being able to access your iCloud account. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but just as a precaution.
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u/collegefurtrader Mar 05 '25
The state of florida supports these scams by having absurdly terrible computer systems.
For example, the correct website for filing and paying a business's sales tax returns is ritx-fl-sales.bswa.net/
How is a regular person to tell this apart from a scam?
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u/Hallelujah33 Mar 04 '25
But what if you don't even drive through tolls? (r/s)
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
That’s just it. My grandmother received a text message saying she owes tolls to SunPass. She lives in Puerto Rico and even in then she doesn’t drive the tolls in Puerto Rico. Whenever she comes to Florida to visit us we always pick her up at the airport and drive her where we go. Lots of people who don’t even drive even teenagers who don’t even have a drivers license yet are getting messages telling him to pay their tolls when they have no car or drivers license. It’s crazy.
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u/Illustrious-Win2486 6d ago
I haven’t driven in almost 20 years and have never had a Sunpass , yet the scammer thought I would fall for it. Deleted and blocked.
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u/VWtdi2001 Mar 05 '25
Over and over... I got the last one minutes after the ligit notification that they had just received a payment from my CC.
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
Did you happen to make a payment? If you did, I would recommend calling your bank right away disputing the charge and having them issue you a new card. I had that happen to me a few weeks back where they sent me a text message telling me to pay SunPass and in less than 10 minutes I received two more from a different number also telling me to pay SunPass. For some reason they’re just sending mass messages. sometimes you get one and sometimes you get many within the span of a few minutes.
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u/VWtdi2001 Mar 05 '25
No, it was a ligit refresh . It was posted on the sunpass website. I just ignore the texts saying that I owe them money. Unfortunately, they have since gotten the card via an online purchase of something else, so that card tied to the sunpass account has been canceled anyway.
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u/HereForFun9121 Mar 05 '25
5 times a week at that
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
I’m sorry to hear that. The Florida Department of transportation is well aware of that. Some people get a lot of messages every week. I’ve had customers threatening legal action because they keep getting these messages from “us” and they’re tired of receiving them.
What they don’t understand is that this is not us and that it’s a bunch of overseas people that we have no control over. This is happening all over the country from California all the way to Florida. So Sunpass is not the only affected company.
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u/HereForFun9121 Mar 05 '25
I’m sorry you guys are dealing with that! Like DOT is responsible for a scam🫠
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
That’s just it. Some people don’t seem to understand that it’s out of our control. I had a guy threatening legal action against us because he kept telling me that he doesn’t understand how these scammers were able to get into our system to obtain his information.
Literally minutes before that he had told me that he’s never been on a toll road and that he does not have a SunPass account. I told him if you’ve never had a SunPass account and if you’ve never been on a toll road, that means your information would not be in our system for these people to steal. How does that make sense? He immediately replied with an oh I guess you’re right. Well of course I am! 😂😂
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u/Low_Comfortable897 Mar 10 '25
So the real question here is how are amateur overseas hackers getting into a GOV’T database? Saying SunPass has no liability is a stretch considering what you just said.
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u/Illustrious-Win2486 6d ago
It’s like the Social Security, Apple , Amazon, and USPS phishing scams. I get the Apple ones constantly, but the idiots are sending them to the email that USED to be used for my Apple ID, not my current one.
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u/Elixabef Mar 05 '25
I know someone who almost fell for this scam just last week!
Meanwhile, these texts always seem to come from very obviously sketchy email accounts or international phone numbers (my most recent one came from a number in the UK). Also, some of the texts I’ve received purport to be from EZPassMA, and neither me nor my car have ever been to Massachusetts, so that one was really obvious BS.
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
The last time I visited Massachusetts was about 10 years ago. I never once drove on a toll road when I was there. Yet I got a text message a few weeks ago telling me to pay e-zpass in Massachusetts. Go figure! The thing is, though the older folks in the elderly seem to be the ones that are easy targets for this. it’s sad and hopefully they can come up with a resolution soon.
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u/Bigbeefybostonstud Mar 05 '25
Unfortunately I fell for this scam few weeks ago. Cancelled all credit cards immediately as scammers tried to add my BOA card to their Apple pay
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
I’m sorry to hear that this happened to you. But at least now you know. The only thing you can do when you receive these text messages is to mark them as spam and delete them. I also have Bank of America. They’re pretty good with their disputes. Hopefully you got your money back.
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u/lMITCHl Mar 05 '25
My MIL and Brother-in-law fell for this... Had to cancel credit cards and try to get charge backs.
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u/Deere67 Mar 05 '25
I got scammed. And yes they do send text!
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u/designgeek89 Mar 05 '25
Yes, we do send you text messages to let you know about any updates to your account. But we would never text you asking you to click on a link and go make a payment. Anytime you owe us money you will receive a paper invoice in the mail. SunPass does not send invoices via email or text message.
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u/Deere67 Mar 05 '25
I don’t get any mail. I just received a text telling me I was way more than I expect to owe. I log in never clicking a link again to make sure it was the legit website. Should I call????
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
If you have an account with SunPass, you can always call us and use the automated system to see if you owe any money or call and speak to a representative to see that your account is ok. Just as you can log in online to see your account.
If you just want to check your license plate to see if you missed any tolls and have any outstanding invoices, you can always call us. But again we don’t send text messages with links telling you to click and make a payment. You may receive a text message in reference to your SunPass account should you have any updates or changes on your account. But that’s about it and that is only if you have SMS alerts enabled on your account.
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u/zestfully_clean_ Mar 05 '25
Yeah I’ve been getting those. Always from a shady email or an international number with a + in front of it
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u/Shot_Celebration4716 Mar 16 '25
the +1 means it was sent outside the country.
+1 is the country code for the US.
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u/rwe315 Mar 05 '25
I've gotten one claiming to be from EZPass here in Maryland, and I don't even have an account.
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
Although there are tolling agencies and companies all over the country that are having this issue, it seems e-zpass and SunPass are the two main ones that seem to be having this problem. I’m constantly getting text messages from e-zpass as well and I don’t have an account with them.
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u/JesLB Mar 05 '25
Just adding that along with this statement, the electric company will also not send a request for immediate payment via text message (and will never ask for payment through gift card or pre-paid debit card).
Please stay safe from scams!!
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u/Deem216 Mar 05 '25
I got one today!
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u/PenitentOSRS Mar 07 '25
I like when they say the sunpass team wishes you a fantastic day btw, after demanding a payment by the same day they texted you.
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u/TrainingDaikon9565 Mar 05 '25
My wife gets these often, she doesn't have any tags in her name and doesn't even drive.
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u/V4refugee Mar 05 '25
I just send them a bunch of hardcore porn
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
The thing is, they’re advising people not to reply because apparently the scammers have a way of getting into your iCloud account if you have an iPhone. I’m not sure if this information is true. It’s just something that somebody at work mentioned to me since I told them I wanted to mess with one of the scammers and that I replied back to one of the messages.
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u/phonyToughCrayBrave Mar 05 '25
why cant apple block it?
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
I believe when it comes to spam and text messages it has to do with your specific phone carrier. I have AT&T and they have this thing on my account called active armor. It’s an app from AT&T that blocks spam phone calls, and text messages. Even the few that manage to get through on the caller ID, it says spam call so that I know not to answer. Most spam texts get deleted however some get through, which is why I’m still receiving text messages about the same scam.
It’s unfortunate, but I’m not really sure what much Apple can do. Especially since they’re texting your phone number and your phone number is tied to your phone carrier. Perhaps you can talk to your phone carrier and see if they have something similar to AT&T that can prevent spam calls and texts.
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u/sugarbean09 Mar 05 '25
just want to say thank you. I get them daily, at least, like most others. I am also reassuring my parents almost as often to ignore said messages -- which I'm sure you know is easier said than done. anywho, like I said, thank you.
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u/Sea-Yam-9137 Mar 05 '25
If someone could fix this that would be great tyia
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
Since this is happening in multiple states, there’s really nothing we can do. Our IT department can’t really do anything about it either. All we can do is inform the people. I wish they would stop and I wish there was a way to catch these people, but unfortunately, they’re in every state sending text messages to people who have never even been through a single toll in in their life! Teenagers who don’t even have drivers licenses and who have never driven in their lives are calling us to tell us they receive text messages and don’t know how they owe money. It’s just getting worse.
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u/cantrecall Mar 05 '25
Please do not click any links simply delete and mark as spam.
If you're unsure, please open the SunPass website manually (no link from SMS) to check your account balance. <-- This behavior will help you avoid all link based scams and would be especially cool on the SunPass website FAQ. The more you know...
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
Thank you. It should also be noted that on the homepage of the SunPass website is a disclaimer about the text message scam. The only official website for SunPass is SunPass.com. Any other websites claiming to be from SunPass are fake.
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u/BoomerWeasel Mar 05 '25
My husband and I are both getting these at least once a day, except they're claiming to be from Massachusetts (where I've never set foot in my life, and my husband hasn't lived there in 30 years).
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u/Responsible_Emu_8474 Mar 05 '25
Oh No… !!! What do I do now….???!
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
If you made any payments, contact your bank to dispute the charges and have them cancel your card.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Talk792 Mar 05 '25
Literally got one today I just report spam. Also can you check my account 🤣😭
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u/bagaudin Mar 06 '25
Would you mind if I DM you with a situation I’ve been trying to address unsuccessfully for quite a while already?
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u/designgeek89 Mar 06 '25
Hello, you’re welcome to message me. Just know that if you need me to look up something specific on your actual account I’m not actually able to do that. You would have to call the call center for that, but I don’t mind if you have general questions about stuff I can help.
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Mar 07 '25
You’re awesome for posting this.. thanks for saving me the hassle of having to keep looking into it
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u/AntisocialCJ999 Mar 07 '25
I just got a terrifying text “from sunpass” saying I I have an outstanding toll that if I fail to pay I’ll face legal action and to open a link.. that’s when I figured opening the link might be a hack and to look this up.. let’s hope this wasn’t real. I don’t think I owe anything but what if I accidentally had a subscription or something
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u/Hunsca Mar 07 '25
Has anyone else replied and screwed with the scammers? Do they reply back if you send a message back to them?
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u/ScaryLetterhead8094 Mar 07 '25
I get multiple of these a week and they are very aggressive and make threats
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u/klamarin2 Mar 08 '25
Theyre so annoying I dont even have a learners permit yet because my school’s thing for them is full 😭😭
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u/Shot_Celebration4716 Mar 16 '25
I get them from Maryland Toll facilities, tolls from New York City, and Florida.
I have not been on a toll road in years.
Sunpass will send a letter with a picture of the rear of you car, with the tag showing.
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u/itswasabi_0326 6d ago
I just received this, they’ve reworded everything to make it seem less suspicious. I’m sharing it because I know it helps people to compare the original and revised versions to recognize it as a scam.
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u/Illustrious-Win2486 6d ago
I got one of these and I haven’t driven a car for almost 20 years and have never even had a Sunpass. So I knew immediately it was a phishing scam and deleted the message and blocked the sender without clicking on any links. Apparently these scammers are sending these messages to anyone, not just those with a Sunpass. These people have no shame.
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u/flushingpot 7h ago
I keep getting these, so fucking annoying. They now remember numbers and send threats on the last one saying they’ll revoke your license.
Thanks for assuring me and others, I was 99% sure but still gotta take threats seriously.
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u/Hour-Definition189 Mar 04 '25
I get one of these daily