Patrick Antonikowski came across unusual messages on his phone from the Florida tolling company SunPass. After looking into it, he quickly realized he had been scammed.
“I thought, well, maybe something’s gone wrong,” said Antonikowski. “It’s just annoying.”
Antonikowski didn’t ignore the messages. Instead, he reported them to the Florida Deptartment of Law Enforcement through the criminal fraud division. He hasn’t received texts from scammers ever since.
But Antonikowski isn’t the only one affected by the texts.
Scammers are targeting Florida residents for unpaid tolls, sending notices to people to pay a fee by a certain time to avoid legal actions.
Officials say scammers obtain personal information through historic data breaches.
“Our personal information is all out there,” said Miguel Asencio, director of cybersecurity policy at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University. “What would happen is that [scammers] take that information and sell it on the dark web.”
In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission reported a $5.7 billion loss in consumers believing the fraudulent schemes. No matter how hoaxed scammers are, it can get complicated for people to differentiate what’s legitimate versus what’s not.
“It works on the emotions of the person to get them to click on that message or that link,” said Asencio.
Understanding and educating yourself on how scams work is key to not fall victim to the messages. Asencio says it’s about staying alert of the signs throughout the text.
“Pay attention to where the message came from,” said Antonikowski.
