Inside the ‘Royal Mail’ text scam factories | Money

It starts with a text message; it ends with you losing your life savings.

Police are battling fraudsters who are eliciting personal information and bank details from victims by sending out thousands of text messages a day and setting up “Sim farms” on their home computers.

Victims are ensnared by replying to innocent-looking text messages sent from the farms. They purport to be from a bank, a delivery company such as DPD, Hermes or Royal Mail, or from an official body such as the NHS, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the national census.

Using technology and mobile phone Sim cards bought cheaply on the internet, the scammers are able to send thousands of texts an hour to anyone whose phone number they have on