Unexpected texts and calls about a parcel fee are circulating again. The message often claims to be Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, or a retailer such as Amazon. It asks for a small customs charge, a card-failure fee, or a redelivery payment. The amount is meant to feel too small to check. Lookalike websites and missed-delivery cards with a payment number are part of the same pattern.
Do not tap the link. Do not call the missed-call number. Open the courier’s official app or website from a bookmark, or from an address you type yourself. Check the retailer’s order page the same way. A tracking number belongs in an official box, not in a page that arrived by surprise.
Real couriers do not need you to read a card number to a stranger who just rang. They do not need a QR code on an unofficial card as your only path to a parcel. If you were not expecting a delivery, there may be nothing to release. If you were expecting one, official tracking will still be there after you hang up.
Missed calls are used to provoke a callback. Some callbacks are expensive. Some play a recording and ask you to press a key. Hang up. Search the number on WhoCalledMe before you consider ringing it. Other people may have reported the same depot script. Those reports are community notes, not proof of a crime.
If you have already paid or typed card details, contact your bank or card issuer at once. Small sums can be a test for a larger raid. Report the incident to Action Fraud. GOV.UK Stop Think Fraud explains why rushed delivery payments are a staple lure.
Our longer delivery and parcel scams guide in the Safety Centre covers lookalike sites, texts versus calls, and why bookmarks beat links. Read that guide if you want the full check-list. This alert is the short version: official tracking or nothing.
When you report on WhoCalledMe, stay factual. Time, number or text-sender, which courier they named, and that a fee was requested. Do not paste full card details or a label that shows your address. If the operation uses a text, a missed call, and a live “depot” follow-up, those may be three different numbers. Add every number on one report if the caller keeps changing line.
Block the latest display if it helps you ignore the next ping. Blocking does not identify an offender. Caller ID can look local and still be spoofed. A neighbour is not the source just because an 01 prefix appeared.
You do not have to rescue a package that exists only in a text. Use Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, or the shop’s own tools. Leave the fee unpaid until those tools agree there is a parcel.
