Direct answer: Treat every unexpected delivery text or email as suspect. Go to the carrier or retailer yourself through its real app or site, never through the message link. Fake tracking pages exist to harvest card details for a small redelivery fee that is the actual theft.
Almost everyone is expecting a package at some point, which is exactly why delivery scams work at scale. A short message about a fee, a failed delivery, or a held parcel creates urgency in people who were already waiting.
This guide breaks down how these messages are built, the checks that reliably expose them, and the safe routine to use instead.
The message copies a carriers tone and branding and links to a tracking page that looks official at a glance. The page shows a vague parcel status, then asks for a small redelivery or customs fee, usually under a few dollars. The fee is not the real prize; the card details entered are, and they get used for larger charges later.
Variants ask for personal details instead of a card: name, address, and date of birth supposedly to verify the delivery. That bundle is enough for identity fraud and account recovery attacks, which is why no reply and no form is the only safe response.
Look at the sender and the link address before anything else. Scam messages come from random numbers, odd email domains, and link addresses that merely contain a carrier name inside a longer, unrelated domain. A real carrier link lives on the carriers own domain, with nothing extra in front of it.
Check the tracking number independently. Real shipments appear when you enter the number on the official site or app. Fake messages either have no real number, or a number that returns nothing in the official system while the fake page happily displays a status.
Make it a habit: never follow delivery links from messages. Open the retailers email receipt or the carriers app yourself, both of which list every real shipment tied to you. If a shipment is not in there, the message is not about a real package, whatever it claims.
If you did enter card details, call the bank immediately, dispute any charges, and replace the card rather than waiting to see what happens. Speed matters because harvested cards often get tested within hours, and banks handle fast reports far more smoothly than late ones.
Readers working through this topic often find these earlier guides useful as well: Counterfeit Parts in Electronics: Where Fakes Enter the Supply Chain, Spotting Counterfeit Cosmetics and Skincare Before They Touch Your Skin, and Counterfeit Supplements: Checking What Is Actually in the Bottle.
Reputable carriers do not collect redelivery or customs fees through links in unsolicited texts. Fees, when they exist at all, appear inside the official tracking flow you reach yourself, on the carriers real site or app.
Usually, yes, though the visit may confirm your number is active and bring more scam messages. Close the page, do not download anything it offers, and be extra suspicious of follow up messages in the next few weeks.
Scammers buy breached data lists that pair names with phone numbers and emails. A personalized greeting proves only that your details appeared in some leak, not that the sender has anything to do with a real delivery.
Forward it to your carriers fraud reporting channel where one exists, report it as spam in your messaging app, and delete it. Reporting helps filters learn the pattern, and deleting prevents an accidental tap later.