- A new scam text is to identify UPS and warn missed delivery people
- If you answer, you are sent to a false website that steals your personal data
- You can stay safe by deleting the message if you are suspect
If you recently received a UPS SMS, be careful: it could be a scam. You must be particularly suspicious if the message has come out of blue or if you do not expect a package, because phishers and crooks are looking for your private information. Fortunately, you can take action to protect yourself.
More specifically, the SMS UPS warns that you have missed a supposed parcel delivery and that if you do not answer, the package will be returned to the sender. In reality, there is no package – something given by the lack of delivery number in the message. In other words, crooks send general texts without any specificity to try to deceive the users they can.
The deception becomes more suspicious, the more you look. The messages in question contain a link that goes to a fraudulent website, but as the texts come from an unknown sender, many of the best phones will deactivate the link. In iOS, for example, the links are not caught if they come from new sender.
However, as soon as you respond to a message, the link is reactivated. To encourage this, the crooks who send the UPS messages encourage you to answer with the letter y – Once finished, it activates the link. The messages also tell you to copy and stick the link to a web browser, just in case. Reply not only to reactivate the link – it also indicates to the crook that your number is active, potentially opening you for additional targeting.
What the crooks are really looking for is your personal information, because they urge you to enter your contact details on their website. This can then be used for identity theft and other criminal activities. Needless to say, if you receive this message or if you are wary of its intentions, you should not respond or follow its integrated links. Instead, delete it and signal it as spam.
How to stay safe
No matter if you expect a UPS plot, you should not respond to messages like this. Instead, go to the UPS official website and consult the status of your package using your provided tracking number.
The indicative signs of a scam message are the absence of identification information (such as a package number or your name and your address), and a deactivated link to a website with a suspicious address, such as the one that contains an unusual domain extension (like .Pro or .xyz), badly spelled words or additional characters such as hollows that are not found in the official web address. If one of these elements is present, delete the message and signal it as spam. You can also report it to the FBI internet crime complaints by going to IC3.GOV.
Square messages will often try to rush into a decision by applying pressures and including threats. They could tell you that you will be sentenced to a fine or lose the supposed package if you do not answer. This is intended to make you act too quickly and not to think of your decision. If a message contains something such, take a moment to read it again and clearly think about whether it is likely to be authentic.
IOS and Android have tools to help you fight scam messages. In addition to reporting them in the form of spam, the Apple messages application and Google messages are now delivered with integrated spam detection, which can automatically ban the fraudulent texts so that they never reach you. The latest iOS 26 update also has a call screening function which requires unknown appellants to identify before you can ring you, and this is something that also exists in Android.
Vigilance is essential to avoid text scams, because despite the best business efforts like Apple and Google, there are necessarily messages that slip into the net. If you get a suspicious text, check your feeling of intestine-Does the text ask you to activate a strange appearance link? Is it too vague without identification details like tracking numbers? Do not panic if it threatens you – instead, breathe and ask yourself if it feels. If so, exile it in the spam folder.
