Your phone pings and it's a message from what appears to be the Royal Mail, attempting to rearrange a parcel delivery. You are expecting some parcels to be delivered, so this all seems fairly legitimate, right?
Before you click on the link you should stop and think - could this be a scam? In recent months, there has been a huge increase in the number of people receiving these Royal Mail scam texts, and these scammers are out to charge you for the redelivery of the non-existent item in question.
Read more: How to spot and deal with scam text messages
To keep your on the alert and safe from these scams, we've put together a guide of the kinds of messages you need to be aware of and how to report them.
What do the Royal Mail scam texts look like?
There are a number of different text examples that the Royal Mail are sharing to help people be wary of these kinds of messages. We've rounded up some of the most common scam texts below.
Royal Mail scam text examples
Claiming that your package has been found
Shipping fee costs
A link that takes you to a fake Royal Mail website
Text with bitly link
Mention of 'XMAS-list'
Cost for redelivery
How to avoid being scammed
• Don't click on any links - if you're suspicious at all in any way, do not click on the links in the text message and ignore the message.
• Never share your information
• If you're worried, contact the Royal Mail
How to report scam texts
You can report any scam messages to 7726. This is a free reporting service provided by phone operators. This information is then shared with police and intelligence agencies to hopefully put a stop to this happening again.
What does The Royal Mail say?
In response to the scams, The Royal Mail have released the following statement to help the public understand what to look out for on legitimate messages from them:
‘We remind our customers that Royal Mail will only send email and SMS notifications in cases where the sender has requested this when using our trackable products that offer this service. In cases where customers need to pay a surcharge for an underpaid item, we would let them know by leaving a grey Fee To Pay card.
‘We would not request payment by email or text. The only time we would ask customers to make a payment by email or by text is in some instances where a customs fee is due. In such cases, we would also leave a grey card telling customers that there’s a Fee to Pay before we can release the item.'
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