On the third day of Christmas my true love gave me me…delivery scams… #FraudFreeXmas

Good afternoon,

We always receive lots of reports around this time of year of residents of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight who have responded to what appears to be a text from Royal Mail, or a delivery company e.g. Evri/DHL etc, asking for extra payment for parcels.  These messages are a scam designed to harvest your personal and financial details to defraud you further (phishing).

Royal Mail say:

Royal Mail will only send email and SMS notifications if the sender has requested it when using our trackable services.

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 SMS is in 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. This would apply either to an international customs fee or to a surcharge for an underpaid item. 

For more details from the Royal Mail please see: https://help.royalmail.com/personal/s/article/Scams-fraud-and-identity-theft-how-to-spot-and-report-an-issue

Evri: https://www.evri.com/cyber-security

DHL: https://www.dhl.com/gb-en/home/footer/fraud-awareness.html

Yodel/InPost: https://www.yodel.co.uk/privacy-cookies-policy/fraud

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GRGRY7AQ3LMPXVCV 

DPD as Royal Mail

(Image provided by Royal Mail: https://www.royalmail.com/help/scam-examples)

Please do share this important warning with friends and family and encourage them to sign up for their own Hampshire Alert: https://www.hampshirealert.co.uk/ 

Hampshire Alerts is not a crime reporting portal – please do not report crime here.

If you realise you’ve been scammed and wish to report a fraud that has already happened, please report it to Report Fraud either by phone 0300 123 2040 or online at:  https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/

However, if a fraud or other crime is in progress, and/or you are in fear for yourself or someone else, and/or there is evidence in situ that could be damaged/destroyed, please phone 999 immediately. 

Otherwise, report non-fraud crime online, or find out about other ways to report a crime at: https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/

If you’ve received a phishing email please report it to your email provider and/or forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk 

If you’ve received unwanted phone calls or texts from people you think are trying to scam you, but you haven’t engaged with them, please forward the text/phone number to 7726 or to your phone provider.

If you've been affected by a crime please contact Victim Care Hub for free, confidential, support:  https://www.hampshireiowvictimcare.co.uk/  or phone 0808 178 1641

If you would like to report a crime anonymously please contact: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/ or phone 0800 555 111

Thank you – Fraud Safeguarding Team