Is a text asking me to rate my recent delivery a scam?
Texts prompting delivery feedback that include a link to claim a reward are often phishing attempts designed to steal card details.
Last reviewed: 1 August 2026
Explanation
Parcel and delivery survey scams arrive by SMS shortly after you receive — or expect — a package. They mimic genuine post-delivery feedback requests from carriers like DHL, FedEx, or Royal Mail and offer a small gift or discount as a reward for completing a survey. The survey leads to a checkout page asking for card details to pay a nominal shipping fee on the reward. Those details are harvested by scammers. Real carriers do send satisfaction surveys but they do not require card payment, and any reward is credited automatically rather than requiring payment details.
The 'reward' is the tell. A survey that ends with a prize you must pay a small shipping fee to receive is not a survey at all — it is a card-harvesting page, and in many cases it also enrols you into a recurring subscription buried in the small print. The tiny fee exists purely to justify asking for full card details.
Even the timing is manufactured. These texts are sent out in bulk, and with parcel volumes as high as they are, a large share of recipients will happen to be expecting a delivery. What feels like a personalised message about your parcel is a coincidence engineered at scale.
Common red flags
- Survey link in an SMS you did not expect
- Reward requires entering card details for a small shipping fee
- The URL is not the carrier's official domain
- Sender is an unknown short-code or mobile number
What to do now
- Do not click the link or enter any card details
- Delete the message
- If you shared card details, contact your bank immediately to block the card
- Report smishing to your carrier or national cyber authority
Frequently asked questions
Why do these messages arrive exactly when I'm expecting a parcel?
Scammers send these messages broadly, knowing that at any given moment many recipients will have a recent delivery. Timing that feels precise is usually coincidence.
I entered my card details for the small fee. What should I expect?
Contact your bank immediately to block the card. Beyond one-off fraudulent charges, these pages often set up recurring subscription billing, so check your statements over the following weeks and dispute anything unfamiliar.