A message about a parcel is easy to believe. Most of us are waiting for something, or we shop often enough that a Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, or Amazon text does not look strange. Fraudsters rely on that habit. They ask for a small fee, a customs charge, or a redelivery payment. The amount is meant to feel too minor to check.
Treat unexpected delivery contact as a claim to verify, not as a bill to pay. Real couriers have official apps and websites. You can open those yourself. You do not need a link from a text or a number from a missed call.
The small fee is the hook
The story is usually modest. There is a £1.50 customs charge. A card fee failed. A parcel is waiting at a depot. Pay now or it goes back. Small sums lower your guard. They also let criminals test a card. Once details are entered on a lookalike site, the same data can be reused for larger payments.
Some calls add pressure. The driver is “outside”. The depot closes in twenty minutes. Your name is on the label. Partial personal details can be guessed from shopping accounts or from earlier phishing. Knowing a first name or a postcode does not make the caller Royal Mail.
If you were not expecting a parcel, pause. If you were expecting one, still pause. Check tracking through the retailer or the courier’s own site. Type the address yourself or use a bookmark you saved earlier. Do not use a link in a text, a QR code on a card, or an address a caller spells out.
Lookalike sites and missed-delivery cards
Lookalike pages copy colours, logos, and layout. The web address is the giveaway if you look carefully. Extra words, swapped letters, or an unusual ending are common. A shortened link hides the real destination. If a page asks for card details to “release” a parcel, leave.
Missed-delivery cards through the door can be genuine. They can also be copied. A card that tells you to ring a number or visit a payment page deserves the same caution as a text. Use the tracking number on the courier’s official site if you have one. If you do not, check the retailer’s order page. Amazon deliveries should be confirmed in the Amazon account you logged into yourself, not through a random link.
Do not call a number printed on a card unless you have checked it against the courier’s published contact details. Fraudsters hope you will ring their line and hear a convincing menu.
Texts, calls, and the missed-call trick
Parcel scams arrive as texts, as live calls, and as one-ring missed calls. Texts often include a link. Calls may claim to be from a depot and ask you to confirm a card over the phone. Missed calls try to make you ring back.
Do not call the missed-call number. Search it on WhoCalledMe first. Other people may have reported a delivery script against that line. Those reports are community notes, not proof of a crime. They can still stop you from walking into a premium-rate or scam callback.
If you already rang back and heard a recording about a parcel, hang up. Do not press keys to “speak to a courier”. Do not read out a card number to a person who rang you or whom you reached through a surprise missed call.
Live callers may stay on the line while you “just tap the link”. That is the same stay-on-the-line pressure used in bank impersonation. Hang up fully. Open the official Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, or retailer app from your home screen. If there is no parcel, there is no fee.
How to check a real delivery
Bookmark the courier sites you actually use. Open them from those bookmarks. Sign in to retailer accounts the same way. Tracking numbers from order emails should be pasted only into the official box on the official site, and only if you trust the email as part of an order you placed.
Royal Mail, Evri, and DPD publish their own tools. They do not need you to pay a random customs micro-fee by card on an unknown page. If VAT or duty is genuinely due on an import, the process will sit inside official channels, not inside a rushed text.
Amazon will not cold-call you to take a card payment for a delivery problem. If a call claims to be Amazon, end it and check the order in the app you installed from a trusted store.
If a neighbour takes a parcel in, that conversation happens in person or through a note you recognise. It does not start with an unknown mobile asking for a fee.
If you have already paid or given details
Contact your bank or card issuer at once. Explain that you entered details on a delivery page you now distrust, or that you read a card number to a caller. Ask them to watch the card and to cancel it if needed. Speed matters more than feeling awkward about a small amount.
Report the incident to Action Fraud. Keep a note of the time, the number or sender name, and what the message claimed. Do not keep photos of your full card. GOV.UK Stop Think Fraud has wider advice on checking unexpected requests.
Search every number involved on WhoCalledMe. Delivery scams often rotate lines. The text, the missed call, and a follow-up “depot” call may each show a different number. Put them all on one factual report. Describe the claimed courier and the fee. Do not paste tracking numbers that sit inside your private orders if they reveal your address. Do not name neighbours or private individuals.
Blocking the number can cut repeat contact. It does not prove the owner of that number committed an offence. Caller ID can be spoofed. If a new number repeats the same parcel story, add it to the same WhoCalledMe report rather than starting a fresh one each time.
You are not obliged to rescue a parcel that may not exist. Official tracking, a bookmark, and a calm check will either show a real delivery or show nothing. Either result is better than paying a stranger for a package on the doorstep of a lookalike site.
Common warning signs
- A fee for a parcel you were not expecting.
- A shortened or slightly misspelt web address.
- Pressure to pay within an hour or the parcel will be returned.
- A request for card details over the phone.
- A missed-call plus a text with a payment link.
What you should do
- Do not tap links in unexpected delivery texts.
- Check tracking on the courier’s official website or app.
- Do not call back the number that rang you.
- If you have paid, contact your bank or card issuer and report it to Action Fraud.
- Warn others by reporting every number and text-sender on WhoCalledMe.
