Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT)

The Kansas Department of Transportation is sounding the alert once again that they will not attempt to collect money via text message and warns the public not to click on any texted links.

KDOT said in a release on Thursday that the department does not collect any tolls of fees for any roadway. The text messages that have been sent to Kansas residents usually have links to websites that do not belong to KDOT and are used to collect personal information from the scam victim.

The scams have been dubbed “smishing” which is a combination of the word phishing and the texting acronym SMS (short message service).

KDOT asks anyone who may have received a text message asking for money from KDOT to report the message to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov or the Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

Anyone who may have entered their personal financial information into a fraudulent website should contact their financial institution immediately, the release said.

The Kansas Turnpike Authority has warned of scams in the past where an unknown phone number sends a text claiming to be the KTA trying to collect an overdue bill, as the Journal-World reported.