BOISE — A California company has accused some Idahoans of visiting the Golden State and not paying their tolls, even when they've never been there.
I'm Senior Reporter Roland Beres, and I received a toll notice from a legitimate company called FasTrak in San Francisco, even though I haven't been to California in years.
Needless to say, I wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Let's face it — I've paid my fair share of pothole repairs and traffic tickets over the years, but when San Francisco-based FasTrak sent me a bill with the wrong license plate, I was more than a little miffed.
So I called their complaint line, where an employee of Fastrak told me, "You may have to dispute this online."
So, I asked, "Why should I have to do all that just because you made an error?"
The response: "We didn't make an error."
Well, no matter what she says, my car does not have the license plate listed on the bill.
Even worse, the employee asked, "Is it a red color? Because I'm seeing red."
I replied, "No, it's silver."
The car in the photo isn't even the same model as my vehicle.
So, I called John Goodwin, Assistant Director of Communications for FasTrak, and he told me this was a mistake.
In California, cameras capture photos of license plates from cars that fail to pay tolls. FasTrak then reaches out to out-of-state DMVs to find the driver.
Only — I asked the Idaho DMV if they give out driver info to FasTrak, and Britt Rosenthal sent me this statement: "We don't know how they obtained your information, but we can confirm it didn't come from us."
So, a legit company thinks I did something I didn't do. And in California, if you don't pay after two notices, you can't register your car again.
I asked Goodwin if there was any indication that this could happen to an Idaho driver.
He replied, "That's a great question, and I'm simply not smart enough to answer that."
So, how does someone get out of this?
Goodwin says — just fill out the "contest" section on the back of the bill and send it in.
But what if — like me — you're hesitant to send personal info to something that looks like a toll scam?
Goodwin says FasTrak is not a scam. "If you get paper mail from FasTrak, it's legit."
Goodwin couldn't give me numbers on how many people receive these erroneous toll bills, but a quick check online shows — I'm definitely not the only one.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
