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Package Delivery Problem? Maybe Not. Americans Are Swamped With Scam Texts

Criminals pretend to be USPS, FedEx and UPS, smishing for your personal info and money

Christina Ianzito,

Updated October 27, 2025

AARP

En español

Updated October 27, 2025

delivery boxes surround a phone with a scam text on its screen

AARP (Getty Images, 2)

You’ve surely received one (if not dozens) of these texts, noting that your U.S. Postal Service, UPS or FedEx delivery has been kept on hold because of an issue with your address, insufficient postage, or nobody was home to receive it. Just visit [a link will usually be included here] to provide more information, pay for extra postage or reschedule delivery.

The link might direct you to a legitimate-looking website, featuring the logo of the delivery service and an actual tracking number, where you are asked to verify your address and possibly pay a small “redelivery fee.”

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One caller to AARP Fraud Watch Network™ Helpline paid with her credit card — in her case, the charge was 99 cents — and later discovered that she’d been charged $400.

That’s just one example from the endless stream of fake delivery-service texts Americans have been receiving from scammers, who are smishing (the term for scam attempts made via text, or SMS) to obtain personal info and money.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), people reported $470 million in losses to text-based scams in 2024, nearly $100 million more than the previous year.And because the vast majority of scams and fraud are never reported, the FTC notes, this number likely reflects only a fraction of the actual harm.

The most-reported kind of text scam? Messages about package deliveries.

These smishing attempts can be highly effective, says Amy Nofziger, director of victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network. We may be targeted with a delivery-related smishing attempt when we have just mailed or are expecting a package — something that’s likely these days, given the surge in online ordering. The criminals “are playing off people’s emotions, and people’s need for what’s coming in the mail, to get them to click on the link,” she says.

“Like all phishing, they’re trying to create the idea that there’s something you need to deal with right away,” says Steve Weisman, a professor of white-collar crime at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and an expert in scams, identity theft and cybersecurity.

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It’s not always clear what the criminals do with the personal information they collect through smishing, Weisman says, but they may sell it to other bad actors or plan to use it in the service of future scams. You are more likely to trust future communications from them if they can provide personal details about you, he notes.

Warning signs of smishing

You receive notice about a problem with the delivery of your USPS package when you haven’t made a tracking request (or haven’t even mailed one). Unless you explicitly sign up for status alerts on a package, you won’t receive a text from USPS, says Donna Harris, public information representative with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). “That’s not how the Postal Service connects with the customer,” she says. And if you never signed up for a USPS tracking request for a specific package, a text message citing one is undoubtedly a fake.

The message has misspellings or awkward grammar. These are classic signs of a scam attempt (UPS also cites “excessive use of exclamation points”). However, note that with the advancement of artificial intelligence technology, scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their replication of legitimate communications.

The text and/or the website lead to a request for payment and/or unnecessary information. As FedEx says on its site, “FedEx does not request, via unsolicited mail, email, or text, any personal information about your account credentials or identity.”

There is no tracking number when one should be present. UPS states on its website, “If UPS contacts you regarding a package, the UPS representative will always be able to provide a tracking number, which you can verify on our website.”

How to thwart delivery-related smishing attempts

Don’t click on any link unless you can verify that it’s legitimate. (See warning signs above.)
If you’re suspicious of a tracking number, check it out. If the text cites a tracking number, copy and paste it into the search engine on the delivery service’s actual website. You’re likely to find that it’s a fake (note that USPS tracking numbers are extremely long).
Go to the source. If you’re concerned that there might be a problem with a package you’re receiving or have sent, contact the service directly, rather than through the link. Sometimes scammers will use an address very similar to a real business’s, such as Fedx.com instead of FedEx.com. So if UPS is handling the package in question, for example, go to “ups.com” rather than clicking a link embedded in the text.
Guard your personal information carefully. “Don’t ever offer it unless you’ve absolutely confirmed [that the request] is legit,” says Weisman.

Where to report package-delivery smishing

If it’s USPS-related smishing, send an email to spam@uspis.gov, including a screenshot of the text, your name and other relevant details (USPS offers more information here).

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