Whether you’ve driven through a toll recently or not, you may have received a text saying you owe money for unpaid tolls. While utilizing SMS messaging is a legitimate way for toll agencies to contact you, there has been a sharp increase in the amount of these texts that are scams. In this scenario, scammers send texts that might show a dollar amount for how much you supposedly owe and include a link that takes you to a page to enter your bank or credit card info — but it’s a phishing scam.

In order to avoid falling victim to these scams, it is very important that you check out the legitimacy of the text before immediately clicking links. If you have recently went through a toll, and therefore believe that the text may be legitimate, still use cation and avoid using the link that is provided in the text. Instead visit their website and proceed to log in that way.

If you believe the text that you received is a scam, delete it and use your phone’s “report junk” option to report unwanted texts to your messaging app or forward them to 7726 (SPAM). Once you’ve checked it out and reported it, delete the text.

Learn more about spotting and avoiding text scams at ftc.gov/textscams.