Evri issues urgent warning to every customer and says 'never'

Parcel giant speaks out following huge rise in scams

Parcel giant Evri has issued an urgent warning to millions of its customers. The firm said it had seen a huge 235% in scam reports in the space of a year and had closed 12,000 "malicious" webpages set up to trick customers.

Bosses are worried more people are falling for scam messages and emails using its name. These tricks are only set to surge in the coming weeks and the run-up to Christmas, prompting a warning.

As Evri serves so many customers, it's likely some of the scam messages will be sent to those expecting parcels from the firm. Criminals are also using new methods involving AI.

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Evri warned to watch out for a 'redelivery fee' message, which they said they would never send. Richa Bhuttar, chief information security officer at Evri, said: “These criminals are taking advantage of the millions of parcels we deliver to households every day, especially at this busy time of year. They use what we would refer to as the ‘spray and pray’ method, sending thousands of messages every day aided now by the use of AI.

"Inevitably, this means some of them are likely to arrive with someone expecting a parcel, increasing the chance of catching customers out. 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.”

Sarah Lyons, the Government’s National Cyber Security Centres deputy director for economy and society at the NCSC, said: “We know that unfortunately, criminals will be looking for every opportunity to scam people out of their hard-earned cash, especially in the run up to a busy festive period for online shoppers.

“I urge everyone to help us fight scammers by following the government’s Stop! Think Fraud advice and if something feels off, don’t hesitate, forward suspicious emails to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service at report@phishing.gov.uk, and forward suspicious text messages to 7726.”