Delivery Scam Text and Email Messages

Scam texts

In the run up to Christmas and now with the January sales many of us are expecting parcel deliveries. Scammers are fully aware of this and use it to their financial advantage. Scam texts claiming to be from companies such as Evri are currently on the rounds. However, all are sent from random, likely “spoofed” mobile numbers (see October bulletin).

All of these messages tell you that something is preventing your package from being delivered to you.

The reasons given for a failed delivery include ‘incomplete address information’, ‘package damage’,  ‘missing postal code’, ‘the delivery address not being clear’ and ‘insufficient postage paid’.

All of the messages include “phishing” links which lead to malicious websites that ask for your personal and payment information. Some of the links use a short URL generator to mask the real URLs of the dodgy websites and others lead to a QR code which, if scanned, can download malware to your device.

Scam delivery emails

These emails impersonate companies such as Evri and UPS. They aim to trick you into visiting malicious websites to hand over personal and financial information.

The emails included claims that your ‘delivery’ wasn’t possible and try to get you to follow a link to ‘confirm your shipping details,’ or to ‘reschedule a redelivery’ because you weren’t in.

Avoiding and reporting scam delivery messages

The safest way to track a delivery is to check the tracking information in your order confirmation email, or visit the official website of the delivery company. Do not follow links in messages.

You can report these scams by forwarding suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk. Scam texts can be reported by forwarding them to 7726 and dodgy websites can be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre.

If you become the victim of a scam, call your bank immediately using the number on the back of your bank card and report it to Action Fraud.