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Delivery company Hermes has issued an urgent warning to anyone waiting on a parcel to arrive.
The warning comes after a number of customers are reportedly being targeted and almost falling victim to a new scam.
These latest parcel scams follow similar fake messages purporting to be from Royal Mail and other shipping companies.
READ MORE: Woman, 20, ‘slept for three days solid’ after ‘spiking’ on night out
Posting on a neighbourhood app, one woman, who lives in Formby, said: “I received a text from Hermes telling me it’d failed to deliver parcel (I was actually waiting for a parcel) and asking to reschedule at a cost of £1.49 and asking for card and bank details.
“Having contacted [the retailer she had ordered from] I was told this was a scam. Watch out for this because it really did look like Hermes.”
Many people were quick to comment on the post.
One man, who appears to work for Hermes, said: “Ignore it, we never charge for delivery. Spread the word.”
A woman said: “This happened to me twice. Strange thing is I was waiting for a parcel both times.
“First time started the reschedule form until it started asking for £1.99. So I stopped and phoned the order company who said it was a scam.”
Another wrote: “I have had a few of these. It is very clever because who isn’t expecting a parcel?”
This type of scam is known as smishing, a combination of SMS (texting) and phishing, a type of cybercrime in which the scammers are fishing for financial or other details.
Hermes says it will never ask for sensitive information.
Security advice on the delivery service’s website reads: “Hermes will never ask you (eg by e-mail or by telephone or by SMS), to enter or transmit sensitive customer information via the Internet.
“The payment of our services will be on the spot and in cash.
“If you receive a payment request via e-mail, please ignore this. In this case it is a phishing attempt. Other phishing emails ask the user to change password or threaten to block accounts. In these cases, do not enter any data whatsoever.
“Wherever possible, only use your own computer to enter access data to websites.”
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