Fake shipping texts are easy to spot once you know what to look for

Getting a package can be exciting, especially if you’ve forgotten about it. Unfortunately, scammers know this and send fake shipments to trick you into submitting your personal information as part of a fake shipment scam.

What is fake shipment text?

The fake shipping text aims to impersonate legitimate messages that courier services send to their customers while their package is on its way. If you’ve ever received a message from a delivery company saying they received your package along with a tracking link, scammers try to impersonate these kinds of messages.

The scammer’s main goal is to get your personal information. Sometimes they’ll settle for just your personal information, but other times they’ll try to trick you into submitting your credit card information. So learning how to spot fake package text is a good way to keep your data safe.

What does the fake shipment text look like?

So how do you recognize a fake shipment text? Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to identify them.

Check out my two screenshots above; the first one is the real text message i got for the package i ordered and the second one is fake. Let’s deconstruct these images to see why the latter looks like a hoax.

You haven’t actually ordered anything

This is a dead giveaway. If you get a text saying your package is on its way, but you haven’t ordered anything online, there’s a good chance it’s a scam. It might be worth doing a little research to see if it’s a legitimate package, but someone entered your number instead of theirs, or maybe it’s a package you forgot to order. However, 99% of the time it’s just a scam.

Your phone says it’s a scam

One big difference between the two screenshots is the warning that the fake text message is a scam. While these fraud checks are never perfect, they are usually right. If you see this dialog box, take everything in the text message with a grain of salt.

The text comes from a random number

When you receive a text message from a legitimate business, it will usually show the name of the company instead of the number they used to contact you (known as caller ID). In the images above, Yodel’s name appears where the phone number would normally be.

If you receive a text message that claims to be from a well-known company but appears to be from a random number, be careful.

The text message contains typos and odd grammar

View the content of the text message. Does this sound like something the company would send you? Does the text flow properly with correct grammar? Or does it contain typos and strange sentences that seem out of place? If it’s the latter, it’s probably a scam.

Notice how the first message in the screenshots above reads professionally, but the second one sounds a bit “off.” This is a good sign that you are dealing with a scammer.

The link doesn’t look legit

You can see in the screenshots above that the Yodel text gives me a Yodel-based URL to click on, while the fake Royal Mail address uses a link shortening service to hide the URL. Some legitimate businesses will also use link shortening services, so this is not a reliable way to tell the real text from the fake one. However, once you’ve clicked on the link, you can check the URL you’re being redirected to. If the URL looks suspicious, it is a scam.

The website does not include a tracking number

When a legitimate service sends you a text message about your shipment, it usually includes an actual tracking number that you can reference. Fake websites usually don’t show a tracking number, which is a big red flag. If they show one, they are probably fake.

In the images above, Yodel’s URL included a tracking number, while Royal Mail did not, which was a big plus.

What to do if you are not sure about the text of the shipment

If you’ve received a text message about your package but aren’t sure if it’s real, try looking up the tracking number. If you find one, close the text message, open a new browser and go to the official website of the courier service. Enter the tracking number there and see if anything shows up; if nothing happens or there is no tracking number in the text message, you probably have a scam on your hands.

If you’re still unsure, it’s worth contacting the courier’s customer support and describing the text message. They will be able to inform you whether the message you received is a scam or not.

Getting packages is great, but being fooled by a shipping text is anything but. Fortunately, if you use your head to analyze the text before clicking on any link, you should be safe from these scams.