Warnings Issues Over New ‘Royal Mail’ Text Scam

Scams are, sadly, a very common part of modern life. I myself regularly get telephone calls from my ‘Internet Service Provider’ telling me that there’s been suspicious activity on my account and my network will be shut down within 24-hours unless I (presumably) pay someone a fee. – Fortunately, many of us are well aware of what this really is and can largely smell these con artists from a mile away. It seems, however, that a new scam has appeared and, in a report via Mashable, has, unfortunately, already managed to claim more than a few victims!

New Text Message Phishing Scam!

In a nutshell, this scam is honestly nothing new. It’s what’s known as a ‘phishing‘ scheme and for those of you unaware of the term, it simply means that by posing as a legitimate (and usually well-known) company, the scammer attempts to make you accidentally give away very important information. The term ‘phishing’ is actually something of a moderate play on words as it refers to the sad fact that if they cast enough rods with bait, sooner or later, someone is going to bite!

With this particular one, the scam is sent via text message and portends to be from ‘Royal Mail’. It advises you that a parcel, pending delivery to you, requires payment. It then gives you an honestly very convincing-looking website where you have to enter personal and, of course, payment information. This isn’t, of course, to actually send you anything, this is just so they can drain as much money from your bank account as possible!

The below is an example of the text message and, as you can probably understand why, I have removed the website link in question.

EDIT – Following further information being revealed about this scam, it would appear that the initial text message is only the first tier. After entering your information, within 1-3 days you’ll get a call from your ‘bank’ ironically informing you that there has been suspicious activity on your account (several failed direct debits for example). This is where the main scam starts with them attempting to get you to transfer money to their account. The scammers ‘prove’ their legitimacy (as you bank) by quoting the information you provided them in the initial ‘Royal Mail’ phish.

Victims Have Sadly Been Claimed!

Given the exceptionally common occurrence these days of receiving parcels, it is understood that this scam has unfortunately already claimed a notable number of victims. As such, and as always in these instances, we firmly encourage you to share this news with your friends and family to, all going well, prevent them from also being taken in by this!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!