Holiday shopping season is starting, packages are multiplying — and so is the scam that, in Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data for 2024, was the single most reported text-message scam of all: fake package-delivery problems. Reported losses to text scams overall hit $470 million in 2024. The cruel trick is timing: the fake text often arrives on the very day you are waiting for a real package.
How the scam works
You get a text claiming to be from USPS — or FedEx, or DHL — saying your order was confirmed, a package is out for delivery, or there is a "problem": unpaid postage, a missed delivery, or shipping preferences to update, with a link to "fix it." The FTC explains that the click takes you to a look-alike of the real website, where you are told to enter personal or financial information. If you pay, that money — along with your credit card number, name, address, and anything else you entered — goes straight to the scammer.
The golden rule, from the Postal Inspectors themselves
USPS will not send you text messages or e-mails unless you first requested tracking with a specific tracking number — and those real messages will NOT contain a link. USPS tracking tools are free; USPS does not charge for them, so any text asking you to pay a small fee to "redeliver" or "release" a package is a confirmed scam. One more tell from the Postal Inspection Service: USPS texts come from 5-digit short codes, not ordinary long phone numbers.
What to do when the text arrives (two minutes)
- Do not click the link, do not reply, and do not call any number in the message.
- Verify independently: type the address yourself, or open the app of the store you actually ordered from, and check the shipping and tracking status in your own account — exactly what the FTC advises. Never use a link or number supplied by the text.
- Report it: use your messaging app's "Report Junk" option, or forward the message to 7726 (which helps your carrier block the number), and tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
- If the text claims to be USPS, also email it to spam@uspis.gov: paste the message text (without clicking its link) into a new email, include your name and a screenshot showing the sender's number and the date sent, as the Postal Inspection Service requests.
- Turn on your phone's filters for unknown senders, and share this rule with family — especially anyone waiting for gift deliveries in the coming weeks.
If you already clicked or entered information
Do not wait. The Postal Inspection Service advises notifying your financial institution right away — even if you did not press "submit" — monitoring your accounts, and changing any password you typed into the look-alike site.
The bottom line that protects your money: a real package never needs a link from a surprise text, and never needs a card payment from your phone to be delivered. One minute checking your real store account exposes the whole scam.
Sources:
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — Consumer Alert, April 23, 2025: https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2025/04/think-text-message-usps-it-could-be-scam
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) — "Smishing: Package Tracking Text Scams," last updated May 19, 2025: https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/smishing-package-tracking-text-scams
- Federal Trade Commission — 2024 text-scam data (published April 2025): fake package-delivery problems were the most reported text scam; reported losses to text scams reached $470 million in 2024.
(General educational information, not legal or financial advice. When in doubt, contact the carrier or your bank using official numbers you look up yourself.)
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