Beware - Very convincing Hermes Text Scam

[TUS373]

I nearly fell for a text scam today, purporting to be from Hermes. The text I received said:

"Hermes. We are sorry that we missed your delivery today. Please visit https://hermes-parcel-delivery.com to book a redelivery. Your item will return to a sender if no action is taken"

I was annoyed (as I was in), clicked the link and it showed me a barcode, tracking number and progress bar after putting in my post code. It then talked about arranging a redelivery, after asking name, address and DATE OF BIRTH. The next page then mentions a modest redelivery payment (around £1.05) and that really annoyed me. It then invited me to put in my card number, CCV, sort code and bank account.

It looked very convincing, but I was suspicious because of the detail of information requested and that I have never had to pay a redelivery charge. I therefore entered all manner of bogus information - Joe Bloggs, Conundrum Close, card number 12345999, that sort of thing. It happily accepted all the details and said my delivery was rearranged. When I go back in again, it does not take me to the same page now. Altogether, extremely professionally done. Just that most of the links on the web page (all done on my phone) did not work.

Please see some shots below, and be on guard!

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[sherman]

Hermes post a little blue card through your door saying where your package is(depot, neighbour, hiding spot etc if your not in.
Its a similar thing to the royal mail red card.
Theydont text you and say undeliverable. They will generally leave it somewhere.

[anonymous-user]

Did it say Hermes in the sender or was it a random number?

Major business’ text always come from ‘DHL’, ‘HSBC’, etc.

I’ve had a few from Royal Mail of late, exactly the same but from a +44 xyz number so quite obvious they are fake.

[joshleb]

What phone number did it come from? A named one or just a random number?

Getting lots of fake Royal Mail and EE messages going around currently, but they're all from random numbers.






[I did fall for a EE one whilst travelling in South America a year ago, I had just changed my number from contract to PAYG and I was waiting to be able to add money to the account, text comes through saying I was on £0 credit so needs to be added. What a sucker. Went through the process, including "logging in", and it was after I'd put my card details in I realised I had used the wrong password and it was all a bit shady.
Problem was, as I was in South America I wasn't able to cancel my card and get a new one sent. I just moved money around and kept money in that account I was willing to lose. It took them 8 months (and when I was back in the UK) until someone did an order, that went through but it turns out so someone had also ran the bank pretending to be me to get all the details changed to their info, luckily stopped them in time]

[TuonoPants]

The scammers are definitely getting better at this, I recently received emails that claimed to be from DHL and UPS which were both properly formatted with a convincing layout (all the right logos and well formatted) and text with none of the usual grammar errors. The source email address and the destination of the embedded links were the give-away but if you are expecting a parcel and you get one of these it would be very easy to get caught out.

[TUS373]

joshleb said:

What phone number did it come from? A named one or just a random number?

It came from [phone], which is probably an EE number, in India.

[Bluesgirl]

I had one of these two weeks ago, but from DPD. The text said there was a £2 shipping fee and provided a link for payment details, which included date of birth. It also said the package would be returned to sender if unpaid. The web link was https://dpd-support.net/delivery. It was only the date of birth requirement that made me suspicious, and of course the fact that the item I was waiting for had been sold with free delivery.

[p1stonhead]

I got the Hermes one today. Was home all day and no card through the door so assumed it was a scam.

wkers.

[TUS373]

Good to hear that as convincing as these scams look, that folk are aware enough not to fall for them. It is getting harder to spot these though as the quality of presentation is so good, that if you lower your guard, especially if it irks you, it can be too late. There are some proper scum on this planet that could put their skills to better use!

[SimonTheSailor]

Normally it's obvious as you aren't expecting a parcel.

[LimaDelta]

Received this today. Very convincing - it even had the banner at the top linking you to the Hermes app download. I am expecting a parcel, and almost went through with the payment, but there was no way to see detailed tracking (i.e. where the parcel was actually from). Was just going to ignore it anyway as I suspected incompetence rather than nefarious intent until I spotted this thread.

[TUS373]

It is good to hear that people are on their guard and I hope that this thread helps in its own way as a counterfoil to this well presented scam.

It is easy to say that it is obviously a scam if you are not expecting a parcel. Thing is, with 3 people in the house all using online shopping, there is a frequent procession of delivery drivers at the moment. Scammers know this.

[p1stonhead]

SimonTheSailor said:

Normally it's obvious as you aren't expecting a parcel.

I don’t think that a day goes by at the moment where a parcel doesn’t arrive at our house

[LimaDelta]

p1stonhead said:

I don’t think that a day goes by at the moment where a parcel doesn’t arrive at our house

Same.

[InitialDave]

Yes, I had this one the other day, and it almost got me, as I was expecting some parcels. Phone number [phone] (yes, I know it's in the screenshot, I'm typing it out so it shows in search results).

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Theres a similar one for Royal Mail which is equally convincing. You can easily see how people fall for them...even people IT savvy. It's obvious now looking at the URL, but if you're expecting a delivery it's easy just to click the link without thinking.

Edited by Dr Doofenshmirtz on Monday 19th April 08:32

[carlove]

I’m glad you didn’t fall for it, they are very convincing.

When I get that sort of message I check the real website, for example the message was Hermes-parcel-delivery.com, when I check Hermes they’re actually myhermes.co.uk so that would immediately show it as a scam for me. The URL would raise my suspicion, but I live to think I’m pretty savvy.

What I don’t understand, is how they find people who are expecting a Hermes delivery? Do they just send a mass text and inevitably some of those are people waiting for a delivery?

[p1stonhead]

carlove said:

I’m glad you didn’t fall for it, they are very convincing.

When I get that sort of message I check the real website, for example the message was Hermes-parcel-delivery.com, when I check Hermes they’re actually myhermes.co.uk so that would immediately show it as a scam for me. The URL would raise my suspicion, but I live to think I’m pretty savvy.

What I don’t understand, is how they find people who are expecting a Hermes delivery? Do they just send a mass text and inevitably some of those are people waiting for a delivery?

Yes. I got one and wasn’t expecting anything from Hermes.

Send a few million texts and I bet at least 10,000+ might be expecting something that day.

[Sheepshanks]

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

Theres a similar one for Royal Mail which is equally convincing. You can easily see how people fall for them...even people IT savvy. It's obvious now looking at the URL, but if you're expecting a delivery it's easy just to click the link without thinking.

I got the Hermes one last week too, and it's probably a 'better' scam as it sucks you in before asking for money.

As others, we get Hermes deliveries pretty often.

What's odd about it for me is I rarely get scam calls or texts on my mobile - whereas my wife gets them almost daily.


If you have older people in your life you should warn them - my late FIL, who was quite with-it and computer savvy, was caught out by "BT" router scam and I can easily imagine he would have been caught out by this.

Edited by Sheepshanks on Monday 19th April 10:12

[condor]

I got a similar one few days ago from 44 7586 371321

Hi, sorry we missed you. Our driver will be attempting to re-deliver tomorrow. Please reschedule and cover the £1.45 fee here : myhermes-package-fee.com

I hadn't ordered anything so knew it was a scam.