Post Office scams often arrive in the form of fake text messages and emails. Here are some of the most common attempts impersonating the Post Office doing the rounds.
Post Office scams operate a lot like other delivery scams, such as the Evri text scam or Royal Mail scams. The goal of this type of fraud is to capture your card details and other sensitive personal information by directing you to a fake website via links in SMS text messages.
These websites are often near-identical clones of the brands’ official pages, except it’s the scammers that control them. This is why it’s important to be eagle-eyed. Find out how to spot a scam.
Here’s a round-up of some of the most common Post Office scam attempts spotted lately. This is how you can spot the fake texts and cloned websites to ensure you aren’t passing your details on to fraudsters.
Free Look After My Bills money-saving email
Fake Post Office text messages
RT @PostOffice: Don't click any of the links inside scam texts like this one. Forward them for free to 7726. These messages don't come the Post Office. @CyberProtectUK #CyberProtect pic.twitter.com/rnuIJo3huP
— TSecrime (@tsecrime) June 21, 2021
Text messages purporting to be from the Post Office are variants of the Royal Mail scam. They operate in exactly the same way and use the same tactics, with the exception being that they are taking advantage of another familiar brand.
Once again, the websites that these text messages attempt to send you to have nothing to do with the Post Office. They’re often convincing clones that will attempt to capture your card details and sensitive personal information.
How do I know if a Post Office email is genuine?
Post Office scams may involve clever tactics and convincing-looking pages, but fortunately they’re much easier to spot. Why? Because the Post Office will never never send you a text about parcels or mail.
The Post Office does not deliver parcels or letters, that’s the job of Royal Mail. So if you’ve been sent one of these messages, you can safely ignore it.
What to do if you’ve been scammed
If you think you may have given your banking or card details away to scammers, you should let your bank know what’s happened immediately. You can do this via the Stop Scams UK scheme, which most big banks subscribe to. Get in touch by calling the 159 hotline.
Alternatively, call your bank on its official fraud hotline.
The bank should work with you to get your money back after a scam. But this will vary depending on how the scammer stole your money.
You should also report the incident to Action Fraud. All fake text messages can be forward to 7726, which spells SPAM on a traditional phone keyboard.
If you’re unable to forward the text message, take a screenshot and email it to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on [email protected]
This NCSC email should also be used to report fake emails. The NCSC can then work to remove the fake websites that these texts and emails are linking to.
