The package-couldn't-be-delivered text and its cousins
This is very likely the single most common thing that lands on your phone. The package text. "We tried to deliver your package but couldn't. Click here to reschedule." Or it is a toll road bill. Or it is your bank flagging a purchase. The same trick wearing different clothes.
I have grouped these into one lesson because, once you see the pattern, you will identify all of them, not merely the delivery one.
What they actually look like
- A text from an unknown number, sometimes an ordinary-looking one, sometimes a string of random digits
- Something about a package, a toll, a subscription renewal, or a bank alert
- A link, usually shortened or subtly wrong (like "usps-track.info" instead of the real usps.com)
- A push to act now, because the package will be returned, or your account will be locked, or you will owe a late fee
That final element is the entire engine of the scam. It is urgency. I have said it before in this class, and I will keep saying it, because it holds true every single time: if a message makes you feel rushed, that is the tell.
The steps, in order
1. Don't tap the link. Not even to "just look." That is how the page gets your information, and in some cases merely visiting a bad link is enough to start something ugly on your phone.
2. Confirm who is actually shipping something to you. Did you order a package recently? Go to the carrier's own app or website, the one you already have installed or already know the address for, and check your tracking there. Not through the link in the text.
3. Hover before you trust, if you are on a computer. On your phone you can usually press and hold a link to see the real address before you tap it. Look for anything misspelled or with extra words jammed in. UPS does not need "ups-redelivery-secure.com." UPS is just ups.com.
4. If it claims to be your bank, hang up and call the number on your card. Never the number in the text. Never a number somebody gives you over the phone either. This is one of my hard rules, and I will not soften it: your bank will never call or text you and ask you to move your money to "keep it safe." That phrase alone, "keep it safe," is a scam script. Full stop.
5. Delete it. Don't reply "STOP." Don't reply at all. A reply merely confirms your number is a real, active, monitored one, which makes you more valuable to sell to the next scammer.
The cousins
Once you know the delivery text, you will recognize its relatives:
- The toll road bill saying you owe $6.75 and need to pay today or get a fine
- The "your Netflix payment failed, update your card" email
- The "unusual sign-in" alert that comes from no account you actually have
- The "your Amazon order shows a strange charge, call this number to dispute it" text
All the same shape. Something familiar-sounding, a small urgent problem, a link or number that is not genuinely theirs.
Why I take this one personally
My sister Laurel got the package text a while back. Almost the exact wording I just gave you. A couple of years ago she would probably have tapped it without thinking twice; she is busy, she has kids, she does not have time to fact-check her phone all day. But she sent it to me first. Did not touch the link. Simply forwarded it and said "is this real."
That bothered me in a good way, if that makes sense. It was proof of this class working before I had even finished making the class. She did not feel dumb for asking. She paused for five minutes and checked. That is the entire lesson. Everything else is detail.
A note on being annoyed at yourself
If you have tapped one of these links before, you are not alone and you are not careless. I have told this room before that I clicked most of the way through a fake parking ticket text myself, right up to the payment page, before the web address looked wrong to me and I backed out. It happens to people who are paying attention and people who are not. Do not let it turn into shame. Simply change what you do next time.
Before next time
The next time you get one of these texts, do not delete it right away. Screenshot it and bring it to class, or simply sit with it for five minutes and notice what it wanted you to feel. That feeling is the thing we are learning to catch.
~kenneth