That "Delivery Problem" Text Is Probably Not About Your Package

#cybersecurity #techtalks #safety #scams

What the data shows

The Federal Trade Commission’s latest data spotlight found that consumers reported losing $470 million to scams that started with a text message in 2024 alone — up from $86 million in 2020, a fivefold increase, even as the raw number of reports actually declined. Fewer people are falling for it, but the ones who do are losing more.

The most commonly reported type wasn’t a sophisticated hack — it was a fake package delivery notice, warning of a supposed problem with an incoming shipment. Close behind: fake job offers (”task scams” promising pay for simple online work, which eventually ask the victim to invest their own money), fake fraud alerts appearing to come from your bank, fake unpaid toll notices, and “wrong number” texts that strike up a friendly or romantic conversation before steering toward an investment scheme.

Why text works better than email for scammers

Text messages carry an odd kind of implicit trust that email has mostly lost — most people have learned to be suspicious of a strange email, but a text still feels personal, immediate, and harder to fake in most people’s mental model. It also arrives on the one device most people check within minutes, all day, which email increasingly doesn’t.

The practical takeaway

The FTC’s own guidance is simple and doesn’t require identifying which specific scam you’re looking at: never click a link in an unexpected text, no matter how plausible the story. If you think a delivery, bank alert, or toll notice might be genuinely real, go directly to the company’s app or website yourself — never through the link in the message. Forwarding suspicious texts to 7726 (SPAM) helps your carrier flag similar messages for others, and you can report scams directly to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.