You will never receive just a text or email asking for money, Royal Mail says
More than a million scam texts will be sent in the UK this week, and more than half will use parcel deliveries to try to trick consumers.One cyber-security firm, Proofpoint, is seeing ten times more scam messages this year than last.
"Smishing" or "SMS phishing" is where fraudsters send texts to mobile phones in the hope that people will click on a link and download malicious software or give away private data.Ms Tobin said fraudsters use fear to manipulate us: "We don't want to miss that parcel or present. We are seeing more and more urgent messages warning packages will be returned unless action is taken.
Although it's never going to be possible to stop scams, it is possible to get quicker at taking them down, and there's more than you might imagine being done to combat these crimes. Each message we report provides a small piece of a jigsaw. It not only keeps other people safe by getting the links taken down, but gradually produces a picture of the criminals pulling the strings behind the scenes.Deliveries are a good lure for now. But after Christmas Proofpoint expects a spike in Boxing Day sales, deals and discounts, and Omicron scam texts.Katy Worobec heads up the economic crime unit at UK Finance.
The Royal Mail said staff sickness was currently double what it would be in a typical year and it has severe staff shortages at the moment. This year, the Royal Mail has been contacted by 60,000 members of the public concerned about texts or emails pretending to be them. As a result, 40,000 websites have been taken down or blocked within 24 hour that claim to be for Royal Mail parcel fees.
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