Have you received a text recently saying you have an unpaid “radar ticket” or “toll violation” notice? Well, you’re likely the latest target of a “smishing” scam being used across North America.
Smishing, or SMS texting, occurs when fraudsters pretend to be trusted businesses, government agencies or even people you know through a text, according to the Competition Bureau of Canada.
In a notice issued last month, the bureau issued an alert about these texts going out from unknown numbers.
The messages ranged from alerting about an “unpaid highway toll detected on your vehicle” or telling people “we’ve detected suspicious activity on your account.”
“At the end of the day, what they’re looking for with any kind of phishing is that they’re looking for victims to click on these links and provide personal information, which is for the most part credit card information and driver’s licence information,” said Jeff Horncastle, client and communications outreach officer at the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
“What they do is they prey on vulnerable people.”
Horncastle said lately, those vulnerable people are out travelling in Canada and thus may be susceptible to a text about an unpaid toll or traffic radar.
The Ontario Provincial Police has also taken to Facebook to issue warnings of its own about people receiving texts about a radar ticket that hasn’t been paid, with it appearing to come from Service Ontario.
Calgary police also warned last month about a scam asking people to pay fake tickets for parking and photo radar.
It’s not just Canada seeing them, either.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission issued its own warning in May advising about the toll road payment scam as more cash-free toll lanes were built in the U.S.
The agency said scammers were sending out texts “hoping the fear of unpaid tolls may make them some quick money.”
How to identify the scam
While Canadians and Americans have become more savvy to email and phone scams, text scams can still be tricky but there are ways to know if someone’s after your money or information.
“What you can do to protect yourself is always, no matter what kind of message you’re getting, always take a couple of minutes to analyze the message,” Horncastle said.
“Sounds very basic, but avoid clicking on links or downloading the attachments in unsolicited text messages before you verify the sender’s information.”
To do this, he said people can visit the official website of the organization the texter says they belong to and call them by the phone number provided on the site.
Some texts are easier to identify as scams as they may include country codes such as +63, which is associated with the Philippines, but Horncastle warns some can spoof numbers to look identical to official ones.
“Call ID spoofing is very prominent with text messages as well,” he said. “So there’s a good chance that the text message may appear that it’s coming from the official phone number of Service Ontario.”
He said that’s why it’s important to call the number on the official website to confirm if it’s them trying to get in contact.
The message may also ask for personal info or request you click a link or create a sense of urgency, telling you to “pay now.”
Those links, however, may contain spelling errors or appear suspicious — some can even contain an https URL in which the “s” typically signifies secure.
A screengrab of a scam text message is pictured, sent Aug. 11, 2025, showing fraudsters alerting the phone owner they have an outstanding radar ticket on file.
Sean Previl/Global News
The Competition Bureau says the best way to protect yourself may be the most obvious: don’t click on suspicious links, but there’s other things you can do.
Verify the sender by contacting them through a phone number on their official website or through an official email.
Some text messages will also have prompts to reply with “STOP” or “NO” to stop the text messages, but people should instead ignore them, block the number and delete the message.
People are urged to report the texts which can be done by forwarding it to 7726 on your phone, and then letting the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre know on its website.
People are encouraged to share information with family and friends so they can be protected as well, Horncastle added.
“If we have Canadians that feel like they’re equipped to protect themselves from phishing text messages … it’s crucial to share that information with family members, loved ones who we think may be a little more vulnerable than we are and that can go a long way,” he said.