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North Wales Police has warned Christmas shoppers about a parcel delivery scam that has already netted almost quarter of a millions pounds across the UK.
The email and text scam has been running for some time but police are concerned it is now being targeted at the busy festive period when people are expecting Christmas parcels in the post.
Fraudsters have been sending out fake DPD emails claiming the delivery company has tried but failed to deliver a parcel at a property.
The message gives instructions on how to arrange another delivery.
This involves the recipient clicking through links which then request a small payment to rearrange delivery.
If the victim makes a payment, the scam then escalates.
They’ll receive a phone call from a person claiming to be from their bank to inform them their bank account may be compromised.
Victims are told to transfer their money to a “more secure” account to prevent further losses. This account will be controlled by criminals.
In a social media message, North Wales Police said: “We have had a number of reports of a fake DPD phishing email which states that the recipient has missed two attempted deliveries of a parcel and to follow a link to rearrange delivery.
“The link is to a fraudulent website that requests payment to rearrange the delivery and takes the victims personal and financial details.”
“Make sure you don’t fall victim to this type of scam.”
Criminals carrying out this scam use “spoofing” techniques to make their calls or texts appear genuine.
If they succeed, some will have gained enough personal details to enable them to take out a loan in the victim’s name.
Between June and November, victims lost £242,000 to the DPD scam.
However, in the first week of December alone, a further £103,000 was taken from victims.
Similar ruses have been reported using the Royal Mail’s name.
DPD said fake or scam emails are nearly always sent from a private email address.
It will only ever send out official emails sent from one of three DPD email addresses – dpd.co.uk, dpdlocal.co.uk or dpdgroup.co.uk.
A spokesman said: “We are aware that there have been a number of fake DPD emails trying to get consumers to send money for parcels to be re-directed.
“We would never do this nor would we ask consumers to give us their bank details.”
Earlier this month the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) launched the Cyber Aware campaign amid concerns more people will be shopping online this Christmas during Covid-19 restrictions.
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Action Fraud advice
- Your bank, or other official organisations, will never ask you to share personal or financial information over the phone, or via text or email. If you need to check that it’s a genuine message, contact them directly.
- You can report suspicious emails you have received but not acted upon, by forwarding the original message to report@phishing.gov.uk.
- You can report suspicious texts you have received but not acted upon, by forwarding the original message to 7726, which spells SPAM on your keypad.
- If you have acted upon a message you have received, and you think you may be a victim of a fraud, contact your bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud online at actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040 as soon as possible.
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