Gotten a text about Peach Pass lately? It's probably a scam

Caption

A screenshot of a Peach Pass scam text message seen in March 2025. Authorities say such messages are not authentic.

Credit: Khari Sampson / GPB News

The FBI said that during the first two weeks of March, its Internet Crime Complaint Center received 1,573 complaints about the Peach Pass scam.

Those complaints about the annoying text messages — telling people that they owe a highway toll balance when they don’t — totaled more than the agency received in the previous 14 months.

The texts were more than just annoying — they're criminal. The FBI said people falling for the scam have reported losses totaling $3,643, although the actual number is believed to be much higher.

Many people getting these messages don’t have a Peach Pass or even live in Georgia.

Peach Pass, the electronic toll system managed by the State Road and Tollway Authority, has issued many statements telling people that they will never send text messages about toll violations — and urging people not to click on any links in such messages.

If you choose to file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3 — that's at IC3.gov — be sure to include the phone number that originated the text message and the website listed within it.

GPB's Chase McGee spoke with cybersecurity expert Jon Powell at the Atlanta accounting and advisory firm Moore Colson.

TRANSCRIPT

Chase McGee: Jon, can you tell us a little bit more about what this scam is?

Jon Powell: You know, when I think about these — these tech scams, it's just a new variation on a — on an old song. The same goal is to get you to click something. A lot of times, fear mongering or to be alerted that, "oh, I'm going to be in trouble if I don't do this." So playing — playing on your fears. And then the repetitiveness of it and, even — They're getting more authentic, right? But you can still kind of tell that that is clearly not from someone that is with the state of Georgia.

Chase McGee: And these scams, they seem to like create trends where they stick around; they might come from a different state, or you might get the same text a couple of different times. Why is that?

Jon Powell: I think it's volume. What we see with a lot of these is its volume. And you know, if you get it a couple days, you got five days to pay, right? Then you kind of get down to "Oh, two days to pay." And I think they increasingly become a little more threatening, if you will, of the consequences. "Oh, you've got one more day. If you don't do this, the police will show up" or something or you'll be charged, you know, thousands of dollars, that type thing. So that that increasing risk, that increasing consequence to kind of try to play on your — your fear.

Chase McGee: Yeah. And so what should people do when they get a scam message like this? Is there any way to report it?

Jon Powell: There are a couple ways to report it. And I can't ,you know, I can't speak to how effective that is. You know, I know on the at least the iPhone you can, you know, swipe it and report it as junk. I hope that does something. There's some consumer protection agencies that you can report numbers to. But I just — I don't know that — it must be doing something because somehow, you know, the FBI got alerted, right? That this was happening. So somehow they got alerted and were able to push out a notification, a notification from them. And, you know, I tell my sweet mother, I say, "Just assume it's not real. Then call me." But just assume somebody is out, you know, like, that that's not a real thing. And let's talk about it before you click on anything. And I tell her the same thing I'm telling you guys: Don't click on it. Just open the app up or go to the website. Just think we're fighting an uphill battle and just assume it's not real. And then go through the normal channels that you might use.