With the holidays here, shipping companies are seeing a rise in deliveries, and that is something that scammers are aware of, too. That means people can expect more fake text messages that claim to be from shippers, but are actually from crooks trying to get personal information, money or both.
This form of scam is known as “smishing,” which is “SMS” and “phishing” combined together.
Many of these phony messages try to get a person to act fast, because it claims a delay will lead to a package going back to a shipper.
The U.S. Postal Service says you should not click the link or call any phone numbers given. The shipping agency also said it will not send a link in its text messages about a package.
The best advice is for you to not click on a link in a text message and instead look up the customer service number for the shipper or the company you made a purchase with to check the status of your delivery.
If you are not expecting a package, that’s a big red flag that the text message is phony.
For smishing text messages in which the sender claims to be with USPS, the Postal Service’s inspection service encourages you to copy the content of the message without clicking on the link, and the phone number it came from, and text that information to 7726, which reports the message with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The scams and any fraud related to it can also be reported to the Federal Trade Commission or the FBI.
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