Ep. 1775 - I Thought I Was Too Smart To Get Scammed. I Was Wrong.

Matt Walsh· Host0:00

You know, I like to think that I'm a relatively smart and savvy guy, although some might disagree. Smart enough to sniff out a scam pretty quickly anyway, and yet just recently, uh, I almost fell for one. It was a scam text message, one of the seemingly dozens that I get every week now, and you probably received a similar message. It was one of those fake toll notifications where you're told that you owe money because you passed a toll booth without paying. And the reason that it almost, uh, worked on me and kind of tripped me up is that I had recently done exactly that when I was out of state. I came up on the toll, I didn't have an EZ Pass, didn't have any cash on me, so I just blew through it like an irresponsible citizen, and I knew I'd get a ticket. I figured I'd just pay it whenever it comes in. It just so happens that a few days after my dastardly toll-dodging crime, I got this text message. So my first reaction was to take it at face value. Uh, the text said I had an unpaid toll. I did in fact have an unpaid toll, so I was just about to click the link, but then I thought better of it. I realized that they probably wouldn't send a text to get me to pay a toll, and also the wording of the text was weirdly aggressive, threatening that my license might be imminently suspended if I don't pay right away, which of course is not true. So on second thought, it seemed suspicious, and then on third thought, I realized that it was very obviously a scam and I was an idiot for even considering clicking on the link. So I deleted the text and, uh, moved on, slightly embarrassed. Still haven't gotten the ticket for the