Spike in delivery scams as 12,000 malicious sites taken down by Evri
· Warning to shoppers as consumer scam reports up by 235% year on year
· Latest data shows scamming incidents on the rise with reports of phishing emails increasing by 472% around the festive period
· News comes as Evri tackled 12,000 malicious webpages in last 12 months alone, the most its ever taken down.
14th October 2024: Evri, the UK's largest dedicated parcel delivery company, has warned about escalating security attacks on parcel customers after reporting a four-fold rise in scamming incidents and that 12,000 fake sites had been taken down.
The announcement comes during National Cyber Security Awareness Month and ahead of the start of the festive shopping season, when Phishing scams rise dramatically.
Phishing is when criminals use scam emails, text messages and fake social media profiles to trick victims. The aim is often to make consumers visit a website, which may steal bank details or other personal information. They will often pretend to be an organisation you trust. These tactics can be very convincing and often use genuine-looking branding and messaging.
Evri is advising customers to be extra vigilant during the festive shopping period and is issuing core advice on what to look out for which they’re calling the 3 L’s.
· Language – poor language and badly written messages.
· Lack of – Lack of a personal greeting, lack of personal information such as a tracking number of your delivery address.
· Links – unusual links or buttons that urge customers to take action such as pay a re-delivery fee; this is something Evri will never charge for. Evri is also urging consumers to report suspicious activity, information on how to do that is available on Evri’s website: evri.com/cyber-security. All messages will be investigated with expert partners to take down associated fraudulent websites. Consumers should also report any other suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk or forward suspicious text messages to 7726 free of charge.
If a consumer thinks they have fallen victim to one of these scams they should:
· Talk to their bank or card provider immediately
· Report the scam to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040
Evri works closely with a number of leading external cybersecurity partners such as Netcraft, Clickatell, BT, the Cyber Defence Alliance to identify scams and remove them as quickly as possible and is also liaising with the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Centre to make the communications with customers more reliable.
These criminals are taking advantage of the millions of parcels we deliver to households every day, especially at this busy time of year. They use what we would refer to as the ‘spray and pray’ method, sending thousands of messages every day aided now by the use of AI. Inevitably, this means some of them are likely to arrive with someone expecting a parcel, increasing the chance of catching customers out. Lots of these messages try to charge a ‘redelivery fee’ which is nonsense – we will attempt delivery three times before an item is returned and there is no charge.”
Richa Bhuttar, Chief Information Security Officer at Evri,
We know that unfortunately, criminals will be looking for every opportunity to scam people out of their hard-earned cash, especially in the run up to a busy festive period for online shoppers. I urge everyone to help us fight scammers by following the government’s Stop! Think Fraud advice and if something feels off, don’t hesitate, forward suspicious emails to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service at report@phishing.gov.uk, and forward suspicious text messages to 7726.
Sarah Lyons, the Government’s National Cyber Security Centres Deputy Director for Economy and Society at the NCSC