That Package Delivery Text Is A Scam — How To Tell

Your phone buzzes: a text says a package with your name on it is stuck at a warehouse, held up by an unpaid fee or a bad address — tap the link to fix it before it goes back. With the holiday shipping rush on, that text is landing on millions of phones, and the Federal Trade Commission says fake package delivery problems were the single most reported kind of text scam in 2024, a year when people reported losing $470 million to scams that started with a text message. The link is the trap. It leads to a copycat page dressed up as USPS, UPS, or FedEx, built to harvest your card number and personal details — and the real carriers simply do not work this way.

What Arrives

The text usually claims a parcel is waiting at a warehouse but cannot be delivered because of an incomplete address, an unpaid postage balance, or a small redelivery fee — often under a dollar, so it feels harmless. The sender wears a carrier's name, and the link leads to a page copied to look like that carrier's real tracking site, logos and all. That page asks you to confirm your address and pay the small fee with a card.

That tiny payment is not the real prize. The page exists to collect your card details and personal information, which the scammers can use or sell. And here is the part worth remembering: the pattern only works because the text arrived uninvited. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says USPS will not send you a text or email about a package unless you first asked for tracking updates for that specific tracking number — and even then, genuine USPS text updates never contain a link.

The 5 Red Flags

1. The text showed up out of the blue. Real USPS text alerts exist only because you signed up for them with a tracking number. A surprise delivery text you never requested — especially with a link in it — starts from zero trust.
2. It asks for a small fee to release or redeliver the package. Tracking a package with USPS is free, and FedEx states plainly that it never requests payment or personal information in exchange for releasing a package. A fee demanded by text is the scam, not a shipping charge.
3. It wants personal details, a password, or account information. UPS says it does not ask for payments, passwords, or account details out of the blue. No carrier needs you to hand over personal information by text to drop a box at your door.
4. The link does not lead to the carrier's real home. Copycat pages hide behind look-alike web addresses with extra words, dashes, or odd endings. The real addresses are short and plain: usps.com, ups.com, and fedex.com — and the safe way to reach them is to type them yourself, never through a text.
5. It rushes you. "Final notice," "delivery will be cancelled," "act within 12 hours" — urgency is the oldest tool in the box. A real package waits patiently in a tracking system. Only a scam needs you to hurry.

The Checklist To Save

• Spot it. Unexpected delivery text + a link + a fee or a form to fill in = scam pattern. It does not matter how real the logo looks.
• Do not click. Do not tap the link, do not reply, and do not call any number in the message. Not clicking is a complete and correct response.
• Check it yourself. Open the carrier's official app, or type usps.com, ups.com, or fedex.com into your browser yourself, and enter the tracking number from your order confirmation email or receipt — or check the order page at the store where you bought the item. If the package is real, it will be right there.
• Delete it and report it. Forward the text to 7726 (it spells SPAM) to help carriers block the next wave, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and for a fake USPS text you can also send a screenshot to spam@uspis.gov. Then delete the message.

Already Clicked Or Paid? Do This Next

First, take a breath. These texts are timed for the busiest shipping weeks of the year and dressed in logos you trust — they are engineered to catch careful people on a busy day. What matters now is acting calmly, in the right order:

1. Call your bank first. If you entered card details or paid the "fee," call your bank or card company right away using the number on the back of your card, explain what happened, and ask them to watch or replace the card. Speed matters more than anything else here.
2. Change passwords you may have shared. If you typed any password or personal details into the copycat page, change that password from a device you trust — email first, then banking — and turn on two-step verification wherever it is offered.
3. Keep checking the real way. From here on, follow your real packages only through the carrier's official app or a web address you typed yourself, using the tracking number from your order email. The scammers' page tells you nothing true about your deliveries.

Got a suspicious delivery text? Describe it in the comments and we'll check it

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