Why New Yorkers Are Seeing Suspicious E-ZPass Charges This Week

If you recently received a surprise charge to your E-ZPass account, you're not alone.

Yesterday afternoon, I was checking my emails when I saw a charge from E-ZPass pop up on the screen. While this isn't out of the ordinary, I was a bit confused because none of our cars had traveled over a bridge or been through a toll in weeks.

Usually, when my account is replenished, it's after I've gone through a toll with a low balance. Because we haven't done much traveling lately, the charge had me concerned that something was up.

Unusual E-ZPass Charges Appear for New Yorkers

Wondering if this was some sort of scam, I started searching online to see what was going on and discovered that other drivers were seeing strange E-ZPass charges on their accounts too.

The unusual account activity was concerning because of a recent scam officials have been warning New York residents about. According to the FBI, phishing emails have been reported throughout the state attempting to rip off victims by obtaining their personal information. Luckily, the suspicious charges many people are seeing this week are not related to any scam.

Why is E-ZPass Billing Drivers This Week?

The mystery charges that drivers are seeing from E-ZPass this week appear to be legitimate. According to officials, there has been a delay in posting toll transactions from the first week of April through this week.

Auto replenishments, statements and other mail notifications during this period may also be impacted.

Work being done to upgrade the E-ZPass billing system is causing the processing delays, which means that you may now just be seeing auto-replenishment charges that would normally have triggered weeks ago. The good news is that this is all due to the planned system upgrades, and no fees will be charged for any late payments that are made as a result of the billing delays.