The year’s biggest sales begin, and you order a pair of shoes online one evening. The next day, a deal on electronics catches your eye, and perhaps you also start ticking items off your Christmas gift list. Before long, it becomes difficult to keep track of everything you have ordered. Dispatch notifications, tracking numbers and courier messages pile up on your phone. So when a courier turns up with a parcel, questioning whether you actually ordered it may not be your first instinct.
This is exactly what scammers exploit. Alongside the now familiar fraudulent text messages, other schemes are emerging. In one such scam, a person receives an actual parcel they never ordered and is asked to pay for it. The scammers are relying on anyone waiting for several online orders to assume it is simply one of their purchases.
A real parcel does not always mean a genuine order
According to Asta Raudonienė, CMO at Venipak, busy shopping periods create particularly favourable conditions for scammers. During major sales, Black Friday, the run-up to Christmas and other peaks in parcel volumes, a delivery notification is less likely to seem out of place.
“The scam relies on something very ordinary: people are often waiting for several orders at once and do not remember every detail of each purchase. When a parcel is delivered by a legitimate courier company, the recipient may assume it is one of those orders. It is only after paying for and accepting it that they realise they never ordered it in the first place. Inside, they may find a worthless item, an entirely different product or even rubbish,” says Raudonienė.
If you are notified about a cash-on-delivery parcel you do not remember ordering, check who sent it and review your purchase history before making a payment. Make sure the parcel corresponds to an order you actually placed.
If you have good reason to doubt that the parcel is genuine, you can refuse to accept or pay for it. Venipak says it investigates every report of a cash-on-delivery parcel suspected of being part of a scam. If the recipient’s payment has not yet been passed on to the sender, the transfer may be suspended while the situation is investigated.
We tend to be less vigilant when we are rushed or relaxed
Although new scams involving cash-on-delivery parcels have emerged recently, text messages remain the most common way scammers try to deceive recipients. Typically, these messages claim that a parcel could not be delivered, an address needs updating, a small additional fee is due or some other action must be taken urgently.
“During the sales, we are expecting more parcels, while the run-up to the holidays often brings a busier schedule. Scammers exploit this by claiming that a parcel is about to be returned, a delivery has been put on hold, an address must be updated within hours or a small fee needs to be paid immediately. That pressure to act leaves people less time to stop, think about whether they are actually expecting the parcel and check the details,” says Raudonienė.
Yet busy shopping periods are not the only times we let our guard down. Scam attempts happen throughout the year. On holiday, for example, we may be less attentive for the opposite reason: we are relaxed, less alert to potential threats and less inclined to scrutinise incoming messages.
“Scammers do not even need to know whether someone is expecting a parcel. When they send out thousands of messages, some will inevitably reach people who are waiting for a delivery. It is that coincidence that makes the message feel credible,” says Raudonienė.
A convincing message takes more than a spell check to spot
The more parcels we are expecting, the more genuine delivery texts and notifications we receive. That gives fraudulent messages more opportunities to blend in, particularly when they look just as professional as the real thing.
A few years ago, poor grammar, spelling mistakes and awkward wording were often telltale signs of a scam. Today, the absence of those errors offers little reassurance. Fraudulent messages are increasingly well written, and scammers are becoming adept at copying company names, logos and other familiar features of official communications.
“We encourage people to focus less on how professional a message looks and more on what it is asking them to do. Are you actually expecting this parcel? Who is the message from? What is the web address behind the link? Are you being asked to log in, share personal information or make a payment urgently? These details reveal much more than grammatical mistakes,” says Raudonienė.
Venipak advises anyone who receives a suspicious message to pause before acting on it. If you are expecting a parcel, check its status by opening the delivery company’s official website or app directly, rather than following a link in the message. If anything remains unclear, contact the company through its official channels to verify the information.
