WSDOT warning ‘Good to Go’ customers of more scams via text message

The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is warning “Good to Go” customers about scammers sending out fake bills throughout the Puget Sound area.

WSDOT toll spokesperson Chris Foster told KIRO 7 the department has received approximately 400 calls over the past month from drivers over text messages from scammers.

The scam text messages include fake toll bill notices, accompanied with the WSDOT logo, urging people to click on a link to pay. The texts tell drivers they owe a certain amount from a recent trip in the toll lanes and, by clicking the link, customers would visit a phony Good To Go website that takes a person’s payment information.

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“We would never send a text message asking for someone to submit a payment through a link in the text message,” Foster told KIRO 7. “That’s a pretty big red flag right there. We will never ask for payment anywhere other than mygoodtogo.com. So the first thing that people can do is check that URL — don’t click on it if it looks suspicious.”

This is the second time this scam has popped up in recent months. It most recently came up in early July when the scam posed as “mygoodtogotoll.com” instead of “MyGoodToGo.com.”

“If you’re a Good To Go! customer, you may get an email saying ‘Hey, check your account. There’s a message there,'” she said. “If you’re not a customer, it’ll be a bill that comes through the U.S. mail. We generally don’t send texts.”

More local scams: Watch for scam phone calls pretending to be law enforcement

Another tip is to look for the area code of where the text is coming from. The most recent examples of this scam had an area code of 263 —  Montreal, Canada.

Contributing: KIRO 7

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.