A warning has been issued to millions of Evri customers this Christmas.
As we head closer to Christmas, many people will be seeing an increase in parcels being delivered ready for the festive day. According to research from Evri, the pandemic led to a surge in online shopping and home deliveries.
At the time that the huge surge had led to an extra 250 million parcels entering its network and it saw five years of growth in just five months. But with millions of customers, an urgent warning has been issued.
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As more people shop online, scammers have been quick to take advantage of consumers recognising that millions would be waiting on a delivery from one of the big delivery companies. Bogus texts and emails impersonating well-known retailers and parcel firms are sent out in an attempt to trick consumers into handing over their personal information and bank details.
A member of Evri’s Cyber Security team said: "These criminals use what we call the ‘spray and pray’ method. Sending out millions of these messages each month across a variety of different brands in hope of catching you out. We take fraudulent activity incredibly seriously here and we work closely with a number of leading external cybersecurity partners as well as the UK Government’s National Cyber Security.
"Centre to identify scams and remove these as quickly as possible. We are active members of the National Cyber Security Centre’s Trust Group for Logistics, where we work with our industry peers to share information and develop cross-industry strategies to reduce the number of scams."
How to spot a scam
- Look out for poor language – poorly written sentences, grammar and spelling errors.
- Lack of a personal greeting – they may use Dear Customer or ‘Dear [your email address]’ instead of using the name you use on your account (though criminals are getting better at personalising messages)
- Link or Button – they may include links or buttons in emails that urge you to click on them. Before you click on any links, hover over the button or URL to check it goes where it's supposed to. If it brings up an unrecognised address, it could be a scam.
- An unusual or vague email address – the email address will often be different from the usual email address you receive from that company, even just using a slight misspelling or different formatting.
- Check the number – a scam text message often arrives as a mobile number, rather than from an official source.
- They will try and rush you – the scam will want you to act quickly, if the message is trying to get you to send them details quickly you should be suspicious.
- Lacks detail about your parcel – delivery scams are typically vague and offer no specifics about a parcel, no tracking number, where it’s coming from or what’s inside.
If you think you’ve been a victim of on these scams you should:
- Talk to your bank or card provider immediately.
- Report the scam to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040
- You can find more independent advice and support via Citizens Advice consumer help line on 0808 223 1122
- Report suspicious SMS activity to the government’s own anti-phishing services at 7726 or report@phishing.gov.uk
- Evri would never request payment from their customers via SMS or Email, and would urge all customers to report suspicious activity, in addition customers can report directly to their dedicated mailbox – phishing@evri.com.
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