ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody held a news conference Thursday morning in Orlando to warn of toll smishing scams and to announce the takedown of fraudulent SunPass websites.
Smishing uses fake mobile text messages to trick people into downloading malware, sharing sensitive information or sending money to cybercriminals. The term is a combination of “SMS” — or “short message service,” the technology behind text messages — and “phishing,” according to IBM.
“This ‘smishing’ involves fake text messages, and they’re designed to do three things. They divert funds from a legitimate source, like the Department of Transportation or SunPass organization, to a criminal. It’s also designed to steal your personal information, your financial information, your credit card information, your name and other very sensitive personal information. And sometimes, these fake text messages can be used, once you click on a link, to install malware on your phone,” Moody said. “About a month ago, the FBI issued a warning on ‘toll smishing,’ and it received over 2,000 complaints that drivers had received text messages and had fallen victim to these fake text messages asking for immediate payment because of something that was due based on a toll. About the same time, our Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit got a hold of one of these message messages and sprang into action.”
Moody described how her office’s Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit kicked into high gear to work with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in shutting down more than ten websites similarly designed to trick SunPass users, all with URLs using some variation of the toll collection system’s name.
“The legitimate website for the SunPass is www.SunPass.com,” Moody said. “The young people in my office told me I don’t need to say ‘www’ anymore; SunPass.com. That’s the legitimate website.”
Moody encouraged anyone who receives scam texts to forward them to 7726, numbers which spell out “SCAM” on a phone’s keypad.
Moody was joined at the Florida Department of Transportation’s Turnpike Enterprise Headquarters by FDLE Deputy Commissioner Shane Pollard and FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue.
Watch the news conference again in the media player below:
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