The Parish Council has been made aware of a parcel scam taking place in the local area. You receive an unexpected parcel, often a mobile phone, which is correctly addressed to you and is delivered by a legitimate courier company.
A short time later, someone calls at your door claiming to be from the courier company, suggesting there’s been a mistake and asking for the parcel back. This will be the offender, who has used your details and address to order the item – for which you’ll then be billed. Unfortunately, as you’ll probably have signed a docket to confirm receipt of the item, you may find it hard to get a refund for the fraudulent transaction.
Parcel scams also take a variety of other forms. These include the victim being asked to pay for a neighbour to receive a delivery, or to call a premium rate phone number to arrange for a missed delivery to be collected. Please be vigilant and don’t accept, or pay for, any parcel deliveries unless you’re 100% sure that these have been legitimately ordered.