Is a text from Royal Mail or USPS asking for my card details to release a package real?
No. This is a delivery phishing text — one of the most commonly reported scam types in the UK and US.
Last reviewed: 1 August 2026
Explanation
Smishing (SMS phishing) texts impersonating Royal Mail, USPS, FedEx, UPS, and other carriers tell you that a package is waiting but cannot be delivered until a small customs fee, redelivery charge, or storage fee is paid. The amount is deliberately small — often under £2 or $3 — to make it seem not worth questioning. Clicking the link leads to a fake payment page that harvests your card details for larger fraudulent charges. Royal Mail does charge customs fees on international parcels above a threshold, but these are notified by a physical card left at the address, not by SMS with a payment link. If you have a legitimate outstanding customs charge, log in directly to the carrier's official website to check.
The small fee is the misdirection; the payment page is the prize. Card details entered there are used or sold for substantially larger fraud, and the follow-up often arrives as a phone call from someone posing as your bank's fraud team, referencing the very details you typed, offering to 'secure' your account. That second stage is where the serious losses happen, so if you have entered details, act on the assumption the card is compromised and be doubly sceptical of any inbound bank call that follows. The text-to-payment-page pattern itself is the tell: carriers notify, but they do not collect payment through SMS links.
Common red flags
- Text from a carrier about a package with a payment link
- Small fee amount designed to seem trivial
- Link does not go to the official carrier website
- Text arrives about a package you are not expecting
- Sender ID appears as the carrier name but the link domain is unfamiliar
What to do now
- Do not click the link
- Check any genuine outstanding deliveries through the carrier's official app or website
- Report the smishing text to your national spam reporting number (7726 in the UK)
- If you entered card details, contact your bank immediately to block the card
Frequently asked questions
How do real customs charges from Royal Mail work?
Royal Mail leaves a physical card at the address with a reference number. You pay the fee online at royalmail.com using that reference — never through a link in a text message.
After entering my card details on a delivery page, someone called from my bank about fraud — was that connected?
Almost certainly, and the call was likely the scammers themselves. Criminals use freshly phished details to impersonate bank fraud teams convincingly. Hang up, wait, and call your bank yourself on the number printed on your card before acting on anything said in an inbound call.