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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


spinner image collage of three mobile phones all showing scam text messages and screens about packages purported to be from the US Post Office.
Alamy/AARP

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 take you to a legit-looking website, often with the logo of the delivery service and an actual tracking number, where you are asked to verify your address, and perhaps pay a small “redelivery fee.”

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One caller to AARP’s Fraud Watch Network Helpline paid with her credit card — in her case the charge was 99 cents — and discovered later 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) for personal info and money. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Americans reported $373 million in losses to text scams in 2023, a 13 percent increase over the reported losses from the year before. And business imposter scams with scammers, for example,  pretending to be from the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS were among the most reported frauds. 

These smishing attempts can be extremely effective, says Amy Nofziger, director of victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network. We may be hit with a delivery-related smishing attempt when we have just mailed or are expecting a package — something that’s likely these days, with so much 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.   

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 certainly 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”). But note that with artificial intelligence and other advanced technology, scammers are growing more sophisticated in their replication of legitimate communications.

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Have you seen this scam?

  • Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360 or report it with the AARP Scam Tracking Map.  
  • Get Watchdog Alerts for tips on avoiding such scams.

The text and/or the website it leads you to requests payment and seemingly unnecessary information. As FedEx says on its site, “FedEx does not request, via unsolicited mail, email, or text, any personal information pertaining to your account credentials or identity.”

There is no tracking number when there should be. UPS says on its site, “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, not 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 the package in question is being handled by UPS, for example, go to "ups.com" rather than a link embedded in a 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).

If you receive a suspicious text message that claims to be from UPS or FedEx, forward it to either fraud@ups.com or abuse@fedex.com.

Also, report smishing to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov) or your state attorney general. Not every complaint leads to enforcement action, but the information can help officials spot trends and sometimes identify the criminals.

The free AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline, 877-908-3360, has trained fraud specialists who can provide support and guidance on what to do next and how to avoid future scams. The AARP Fraud Watch Network also offers online group support sessions.

This article, originally published in 2023, has been updated with new statistics and information on reporting scams.

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spinner image cartoon of a woman holding a megaphone

Have you seen this scam?

  • Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360 or report it with the AARP Scam Tracking Map.  
  • Get Watchdog Alerts for tips on avoiding such scams.