Royal Mail and DPD are warning about a fake Christmas delivery scam - what to look out for

Royal Mail and DPD have issued a warning to customers about a fake delivery scam that attempts to trick recipients into handing over their bank details.

The fraudulent message appears to be from the Royal Mail or DPD delivery service and urges people to reschedule a delivery of their Christmas parcels.

Reschedule delivery

The fake message states that a parcel was attempted to be delivered, but no one was home, or there was no safe place to leave it. Recipients are then asked to follow a link where they must prove their identity and enter their bank details to reschedule the delivery.

Unwitting victims have then received a phone call from scammers pretending to be from Natwest, asking them for a cash transfer.

This follows a similar Royal Mail scam which was circulating in November, which involved fake texts or emails claiming customers needed to pay a fee of £1.99 to have an item redelivered. Again, recipients were then asked to enter their bank details online.

Warnings from Royal Mail and DPD

Royal Mail has issued a statement asking people who receive a suspicious email, or discover a fake Royal Mail branded website, to contact them.

Those who have been the victim of a payment scam can get a crime reference number by reporting it to their local police station.

DPD has also issued a warning to customers, urging recipients to check the message has come from a valid email address before taking any action.

The delivery company only emails from one of three email addresses. These include:

• dpd.co.uk
• dpdlocal.co.uk
• dpdgroup.co.uk

If the email has not come from one of these three addresses, it is likely to be a phishing scam and should be reported to [email protected].

In a statement, DPD said, “We have recently been made aware of a payment fraud scam requesting payment for the delivery of a parcel.