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A fresh warning has been issued to millions of people in the UK as criminals target the Post Office in a new fake text scam.
Consumer watchdog group Which? said the scam uses a clone website to lure bank details off customers with thousands of reports being logged.
It has been described by analysts as “one of the most convincing clone websites we’ve seen”.
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Which? has found variations of fake text that informs customers a parcel delivery has failed.
The dangerous text asks recipients to follow the link in order to ‘reschedule delivery’, however the URLs take users through to a cloned website. You can spot the scam URLs because they don’t include the classic postoffice.co.uk domain.
Those users who click on the link are taken to an ‘extremely convincing’ mock Post Office site.
The scam will initially ask users to enter their postcode, before requesting details like their full name, delivery address, email address and date of birth.
This vital information will then be relayed back to the scammers who can use it to create a profile with which to commit identity fraud.
Next, they’ll ask you to enter your card details to pay for the £1.10 ‘redelivery charge’, cleverly informing you that your information has been ‘processed successfully’.
With this they can attempt to steal money directly from your account.
A Post Office spokesperson explained: “Scammers use our name, but Post Office never delivers letters and parcels. This is the job of Royal Mail.”
Which? explains that you should tell your bank as soon as you suspect you’ve been a victim of fraud. You should then go on to cancel your cards — this can usually be done on your banking app.
Banks have an obligation to refund unauthorised transactions, so you should be able to get your cash back.
This refund should be processed by the next business day, unless the bank believes you have acted fraudulently yourself.
The Post Office explained: “Once we become aware of a fake Post Office website, we pass this information over to our digital enforcement partner.
“If there is a live website displaying our brand, we can submit a request for ‘takedown’ with the domain registrar that the URL is registered with.
“In a lot of these cases, these websites are only live for a matter of days – mainly because once people start reporting a web URL to 7726, the site becomes untrustworthy. Web browsers will also start flagging whether a site could be a phishing site and start blocking attempts for people to access them.”
Adam French, Which? consumer rights editor, said: “If people input their details and pay for a new delivery date, the scammers redirect them to the official Post Office website – making this fake even more plausible.
“Consumers should be on high alert for scams and, if in any doubt, should verify the text directly with the company before giving any personal information.
“If you’ve entered any bank details, contact your bank immediately to ensure the scammer cannot take any more money from your account and ask to be reimbursed. You can also report any attempted scam to Action Fraud.”
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