Scam alert: Royal Mail delivery hoax

Friday, 24 November 2017

A Royal Mail scam is doing the rounds – and with many colleagues having packages delivered to the office in time for Christmas, we wanted to make sure you know what to look out for.

The scam is a hoax email from Royal Mail, which ironically, pretends to warn customers of a fictitious delivery company, and encourages recipients to call a bogus premium phone number. 

 The scam message says:

“Christmas is fast approaching, Royal Mail & The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). 

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £315 for the phone call.  

If you do received a card with these details then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 020 7239 6655 ….”

If you receive the email (or anything similar), please delete it – do not reply to the email or call any of the numbers provided. 

The scam was first reported in 2006, and has been reported to be in circulation again.  Further information on the scam is available on the ActionFraud website: www.actionfraud.police.uk. 

Please be extra vigilant with spam emails – advice and guidance is available in our recent staff portal story.