Scam alert: Beware of fake EZ-Pass text demanding payment for toll bill.

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- A new texting scam is circulating, trying to convince people to pay $6.99 for an outstanding toll bill. The text appears to come from EZ-Pass.

“It says your vehicle has an unpaid toll bill,” said Giselle Gomez, reading the text she received two days ago.

Gomez said she thought something seemed amiss, judging by the phone number that sent the message.

“It looks like it’s from the Philippines,” said Gomez. “I knew automatically it was a scam.”

Lauren Svennson received the message, too. “It’s alarming, but then you have to turn your detective skills on and figure out if this is real or not,” said Svennson.

Vivek Singh, an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, said the scam does not have to be incredibly sophisticated to work.

“They really want to reach out to a lot of people with the simplest means possible and as long as five people, two people fall victim, they may have already had their payday,” said Singh.

Singh added that government agencies will not pressure you for immediate payments. He suggests only clicking on links with legitimate domain names ending in ‘.com,’ ‘.gov,’ or ‘.edu.’

If you’re unsure if a request is legitimate, Singh said to go to the agency’s official website to see if you have a pending charge.

If you’ve already clicked a link or handed over financial information, Singh recommends calling your bank right away to stop the charge and keep a watchful eye on your accounts moving forward.