Evri issues urgent warning as 'smart' scam stealing bank details reaches all-time high
Evri explains the tactic fraudsters have been increasingly using to trick victims into sharing their personal details.
Parcel courier Evri is urging Britons to beware of the rise in a “smart” phishing scam being used to steal people’s bank details.
Phishing is when criminals use scam emails and text messages 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 a trusted organisation and these tactics can be very convincing and often use genuine-looking branding and messaging.
Evri said scammers are “getting smarter” and using techniques to avoid defence measures when conducting this scam. It urges consumers to look out for an increase in messages from the courier coming via iMessage - Apple’s encrypted messaging service, and Rich Communication Services (RCS) - a similar technology used on Google Android devices.
These services are intended to replace more traditional SMS and are great for things such as personal privacy However, they render any defences available to Evri’s specialist partners, such as flagging text messages for malicious links, ineffective.
Evri said this “makes it ideal” for scammers to use these services to carry out their “phishing” tactics as they have a much higher chance of their messages getting through.
Richa Bhuttar, chief information security officer at Evri, said: “These criminals use the ‘spray and pray’ method, taking advantage of the millions of parcels we deliver to households every day.
“They know sending thousands of messages every day means some of them are likely to reach some people expecting a parcel.”
Explaining what sort of content to look out for in these phishing messages, Ms Bhuttar said: “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.
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“Gmail and Hotmail have pretty much got it nailed in terms of diverting phishing emails to quarantine folders whereas smaller mail providers seem to be less effective because their maturity is not at the same level.”
Evri is urging people to look out for three key red flags in messages, which are:
- Poor language
- A lack of personal greeting
- Unusual links.
The warning comes ahead of CYBERUK - the UK Government’s flagship cyber security event taking place this week.
The company said it had found a 174 percent increase in reported scams from April 2023 to April 2024, while it has successfully closed down more than 5,000 scam sites in the last year, a 268 percent increase year on year.
People can find out how to report suspicious activity on a dedicated page on Evri’s website. All messages will be investigated with expert partners to take down associated fraudulent websites. Any other suspicious emails can be reported to [email protected].
Text messages can also be reported by forwarding to 7226, which is free.