DPD Text Scam

Our friends at Which? Are warning us about a convincing SMS phishing – or ‘smishing’ – scam text claiming to be from courier company DPD.

The text appears to be from DPD, informing the recipient that a delivery attempt was made and asking them to follow a link to arrange redelivery. The link takes you to a convincing DPD copycat website asking for personal details and a small fee for ‘redelivery’.  The copycat website is so convincing that the only giveaways are the layouts of the dates and the fact that taking screenshots of the copycat website are blocked.

The date format on the copycat website was the main giveaway. The apparent ‘parcel’ was in the depot on ‘-1 August’ and ‘0 August’. The order of the delivery descriptions also didn’t make sense.  Some security measures on the copycat website were blocking the ability to take screenshots.

If you’ve received a suspicious text, don’t follow any links. Which? only followed the link in order to learn about the scam and to report it.  

On average, Which? say 3 in 5 of us have received a fake text claiming to be from a delivery company in the past year. The scams most reported relate to fake Royal Mail delivery texts.

Text messages are frequently used by scammers because sending them doesn’t rely on an internet connection, like a WhatsApp message does, and they don’t have to pass a spam filter like an email. Texts are also less likely to be missed, and many legitimate organisations use text message to contact customers.

To know more about this scam and the Which? advice relating to identifying and reporting other scams, click here.

Action Fraud is the fraud and cybercrime reporting centre for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It gathers intelligence on scams and passes it onto the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau for analysis by the police.

You can report any attempt to steal your money or personal information to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040 or report it online.