Fake delivery and toll texts

Check this example →

How it works

1. A text arrives about a parcel that “could not be delivered”, or a toll you “forgot to pay”. It was sent to thousands of numbers at once.
2. The link opens a page that copies a real carrier or toll operator.
3. The page asks for a small amount: a redelivery fee, an “outstanding balance”. It wants your card number, and often the code your bank texts you.
4. The card details are used straight away, or sold. Some victims then get a call from a “bank” offering to help.

The tells

• You weren’t expecting a parcel, or you haven’t driven on that road.
• The link’s domain is not the company’s own domain. Look at what comes right before the first single slash.
• A deadline measured in hours, and a late fee that grows.
• It comes from an ordinary mobile number or an email-to-text address, not from a short code you recognise.

What the numbers say

The FTC reported that fake delivery notices were the most reported kind of text scam in 2024, and that people reported losing $470 million to text scams that year, more than five times the 2020 figure. Most fraud is never reported, so the real cost is higher.

What to do

• Don’t open the link. Check your orders in the shop’s own app or website, or look up the toll account on the operator’s official site.
• Forward the text to 7726 (it spells SPAM, and works with most carriers in the US, UK and Canada), then delete it.
• If you already entered card details: call your card provider now using the number on the card, and ask for a replacement.
• If you entered a password anywhere: change it, and change it anywhere else you used it.

Sources

FTC Data Spotlight on text scams (April 2025).

Where to report it