Driver receives toll bills for another car with fake plates

NBC 5 Responds to a driver getting a stranger’s toll bills. Someone else is racking up charges. Read on for what happened and what you should watch for.

"I RECOGNIZED THE PLATE AND IT'S NOT MINE"

For more than a decade, Guy Morton has driven the same truck with the same personalized license plates.

“My truck is definitely unique,” Morton said. “It’s an F-350 crew cab dually, specific color blue and it has a topper on the back to match.”

His Texas license plates spell out the word “VETERAN."

“It's important to me because I am a veteran. I'm proud of my service and, yeah, I’ll let everybody know,” said Morton.

It didn't add up when Morton received a ZipCash bill with a photo of a VETERAN license plate on the invoice.

“I recognized the plate and it's not mine. That's a fake plate,” Morton told NBC 5 Responds.

On the Texas DMV’s website, specialty plates may be seven characters like Morton’s “VETERAN” plate. However, a license plate design with half a large star on the left side of the plate, like the one in the photo on the ZipCash bill, is limited to six characters.

Texas DMV tells us it appears the plate in the toll bill photo isn’t valid. It also says two different plates can’t have the same alphanumeric pattern.

ROLLING BACK CHARGES

Morton tells us he called the NTTA about the fake plate as more toll charges came in. A notice of nonpayment explains people who don’t pay face late fees, their vehicle registration may be blocked, their vehicle could be banned from NTTA roads or even impounded if a ban is violated repeatedly.

“Do they have insurance? Do they even have a driver's license? It’s just the domino effect of things that can go wrong,” Morton said of the person using the fake plates.

NBC 5 Responds contacted the NTTA. It said it’s rolling back the charges and putting Morton’s account and license plate on a manual review list. It also plans to periodically check Morton’s account for accuracy.

We asked if toll cameras captured more information about the driver in the vehicle with the fake plate. The NTTA said toll cameras are not designed to capture the model of the vehicle or driver photos. It said the cameras focus on the actionable information: the license plate.

We don’t know exactly where the fake plate in the bill Morton received came from. When we looked online, we could see dozens of websites selling novelty plates for as little as a few dollars. Some note that novelty plates are decoration and not meant for road use.

“I guarantee you it’s happened to other people. If it's happened to me in this plate, it's happened to other people and their plates,” said Morton.

Morton said he’d like to see consequences for using a phony plate, especially one with significant meaning to many.

“If that person is not a veteran and they did it, they're stealing from the state, they're stealing from my plates and they're stealing from me. That’s theft of valor,” Morton said.

Monitor your TollTag account to make sure the charges you see belong to you. If you have questions, contact the toll operator.

You can find customer service contact information for the NTTA here.

Customers can contact the NTTA Ombudsman by phone at 469-801-3662 and by email at NTTAOmbudsman@ntta.org.

NBC 5 Responds is committed to researching your concerns and recovering your money. Our goal is to get you answers and, if possible, solutions and a resolution. Call us at 844-5RESPND (844-573-7763) or fill out our customer complaint form.