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Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems.

- BY GLENN FLEISHMAN

HOW TO AVOID BEING SCAMMED BY A TOLLCOLLECTION SMS AND SIMILAR SMISHING ATTEMPTS

America is awash at the moment with a “toll-fee SMS scam.” As many state governments (fave.co/3Gvg62J) have alerted residents, you may receive an SMS from an unknown number claiming that you owe an unpaid toll and demanding that you pay. Because tens of millions of people have payment accounts linked to license-plate-based or RFID-scanned systems, it sounds credible. And if you don’t, you might think that your license plate was linked to your phone number in some government database.

Apple provides a subtle tool you can use to avoid being scammed by this and other smishing (SMS phishing) con jobs that rely on clicking a URL:

When you receive an SMS from an unknown party that contains a link, Messages doesn’t make that link clickable.

However, if you reply to an unknown sender, Apple assumes you know the party and activates links after that reply.

This is why the scam messages note, "If the link fails, reply 'Y' to retry, or copy and paste it into your browser." That's a sure sign not to.

The best advice:

> Any unknown message that arrives with a URL is probably a scam.

> If it says you need to reply to activate the URL, it is 99.9% certain to be a scam (or a badly run business).

> If you believe it's valid, don't reply and don't copy the URL. Instead, go to the originating authority's website to obtain more information, whether a department of transportation tolling agency, a credit-card site, or a package delivery service.

> On an iPhone, tap the Report Junk link in the conversation. This option disappears if you reply.

> Block the incoming number (fave.co/42SmIVC) using Apple's built-in tools.