“Your package has a delivery exception due to an incomplete address. Update your info within 24 hours or it will be returned to sender,” followed by a shortened link. It lands the same week you’re actually expecting something, uses a brand name you already trust, and gives you a deadline.
Why This Matters
Fake delivery texts are now the most commonly reported type of text scam. The FTC tracked $470 million in total losses to text scams in a single year, and package delivery sat at the top of that list.
What It Costs You
The sender name borrows a real company you trust, the 24 hour deadline short-circuits the pause you’d normally take, and the ask feels small. The link opens a fake carrier page asking for a card number as a “redelivery fee.”
What To Do Now
Don’t click. Go straight to the carrier’s real site and look up the package with your own tracking number. USPS does not send tracking links by text unless you requested one first.
Prevent Bigger Problems
Treat every link in an unexpected text the same way, regardless of who it claims to be from, and go to the source directly instead.
When To Call Help
Call for a second opinion if a link led to installing an app or a profile rather than a web page, or if the device handles anything financial for a business.
If you’re not sure whether a text, email or pop-up you got is real, message us before you click anything, not after.
How can I tell a fake delivery text from a real one?
The biggest tell is the link itself. USPS, UPS and FedEx don’t send tracking links by text unless you requested tracking first.
I already clicked the link but didn’t enter anything, am I at risk?
Not from that step alone. Opening a web page doesn’t hand over anything by itself.
I typed in my card number on one of these pages, what now?
Call your card issuer using the number on the back of the physical card and ask them to flag or reissue it.
Can one of these texts infect my phone just by opening it?
Opening the text or the linked page is almost always safe on its own. The risk is what you do on that page afterward.
