The ACMA is advising consumers to continue to be wary of parcel delivery SMS and email messages with unusual looking links or requests to pay a fee to complete delivery. These messages may be scams.
Scammers will often impersonate well known delivery services such as Australia Post, DHL or Amazon, or even use no brand at all but refer to a package or parcel.
If you’ve received one of these messages, do not click on a link without confirming the message is legitimate. Clicking on the link may install malware that uses your contact list to send similar text messages to other people without your knowledge, potentially infecting their device. It may also be a way for scammers to access your personal information and banking details through fake websites.
It is important to remember that some SMS scams may slip into your legitimate message streams to trick you. For example, a scam claiming to be from Australia Post may appear among legitimate past messages from the postal service about parcel delivery.
To confirm if a package delivery message is real, contact the sender using contact details you’ve identified yourself, such as through an official website or app, or via information received at the time of the original purchase, such as a tracking number.
Tip: Contact your parcel service to see if they have an app you can use to safely track packages.
If you receive one of these scam SMS messages or emails:
- report it to Scamwatch
- delete the message
- do not click on any links or call any telephone numbers associated with the message
- if the malware installs, or if you think you may have provided your financial details to a fake website, contact your bank as quickly as possible and ensure your accounts are secure.
You may also want to reach out to your telco or an IT professional for further assistance. If you have lost personal information to a scammer you can contact IDCARE or call 1800 595 160. You can also make a report to ReportCyber if you have been a victim of this cybercrime.
Scammers target everyone! Find out more about how to protect yourself from scams.