Imagine this: You’re a law-abiding driver. No toll-dodging, no speeding. Then out of nowhere, boom—your mailbox fills up with toll violations. Only problem? The car in the pictures isn’t yours. Same license plate, different ride. Welcome to the Twilight Zone of NJ Turnpike fraud and the plague of copied license plates.

The curious case of the copied license plates

It started with a stack of EZ-Pass violations. The driver checked the photos and froze. The car wasn’t theirs—but the plate was. They later said, “Doesn’t look it—it’s my plate—but cars are different colors and make.” Stranger still? “Both from same dealership which is what makes it weirder.”

So they called the dealership. The dealership couldn’t help. The driver looked closer at the photos: no visible tampering. “Already checked with dealership over duplicated plates,” they said later. It wasn’t a forgery—it was a perfect match. Now they were footing the bill for a phantom twin tearing up the Turnpike.

More victims of copied plates step forward

After this driver shared their story in the “NJ Turnpike & Garden State Parkway Commuters” Facebook group, the comments rolled in. Turns out, plate copying isn’t a fluke—it’s happening more than you’d think.

“Same thing happened to me,” said Florence Massey Miranda. “I had to go to police station and file a report.” Another user, Paul Subacius, called it “a nightmare.” He explained, “I had to surrender and change my plates,” and added that tolls in his name even crossed into New York.

“I had to work with Turnpike Authority to get reimbursed,” Paul wrote, “while I needed to file a criminal investigation report with the NJ State Police.” He wasn’t alone. One commenter said it took them almost a year to fight $369 in bogus charges.

Surrender the plates, stay off the road

The original poster had to take drastic action. “My plates had to be reported as stolen—so I can’t drive my car until I get new plates,” they explained. That meant surrendering their registration, sitting out the daily commute, and waiting on the DMV.

So next time you get a surprise toll bill, don’t just shrug it off. Check the car in the photo. If it’s not yours, you might be the latest victim of the plate-swap hustle. And in New Jersey, that’s becoming a weirdly common crime.