CT BBB Warns Holiday Package Scams: How Shoppers Stay Safe

This article digs into how scammers use fake package delivery messages to target Connecticut residents during the busy holiday season. With folks in cities and towns—like Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, and Bridgeport—ordering gifts online, fraudsters are banking on people being distracted and in a rush. They hope you’ll click a malicious link and hand over your personal info or even money without a second thought.

Holiday Package Delivery Text Scams Are Rising in Connecticut

Online shopping is booming from Norwalk to Waterbury and from Danbury to New Britain. Scammers are taking advantage by sending out fake texts that look like they’re from major delivery services. The Better Business Bureau Serving Connecticut wants everyone to know what to watch for before the holiday chaos really sets in.

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How the Scam Works

Scammers usually send a text claiming to be from a big-name carrier like USPS, UPS, FedEx, or Amazon. The message often warns about a delivery problem or asks you to “update delivery preferences” or “confirm your address.”

The real trap is the link in the message. If you tap it, you might:

Land on a fake website that copies a real carrier’s page

Get asked for personal info like your name, address, or birthdate

Be told to enter your credit card or bank info to “pay a small redelivery fee”

End up with malware installed on your phone or device

Instead of getting a package at your door in Milford or West Hartford, you could end up handing scammers the keys to your identity or your bank account.

Why the Holiday Season Is Prime Time for Scammers

Scammers know that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, people are shopping more and tracking deliveries. With multiple orders to juggle, it’s easy for someone in Mystic, Manchester, or Meriden to react to a delivery text without thinking twice.

They also play on the urgency of the holidays. Nobody wants a gift to show up late or disappear, so a warning about a delayed package can make people click a link they’d usually ignore.

What the BBB Says About Delivery Messages

The Better Business Bureau Serving Connecticut says if you get an unexpected text about a delivery, be cautious. These texts are almost always a warning sign, especially if you never gave your contact info to the carrier.

Legitimate Carriers Don’t Text You Out of the Blue

The BBB says you won’t get surprise texts from USPS or other delivery companies unless you’ve signed up for notifications. So, if a message pops up and you never enrolled in alerts for that package, it’s probably a scam.

Real delivery services usually:

Send updates only if you opted in for tracking or alerts

Address you by name if they already have your details

Match the info in their messages to a shipment you actually recognize

They don’t ask for sensitive financial info through a text link, and they won’t demand immediate payment to keep your package from getting returned.

How Connecticut Consumers Can Protect Themselves

With scammers targeting everyone from shoreline towns to inland suburbs, the BBB urges everyone to stay sharp. Just a few habits can really lower your risk.

To stay safe, the BBB suggests:

Don’t click links in unexpected texts or emails about deliveries.

Go straight to the official site or app of the carrier (like USPS.com, UPS.com, or FedEx.com) and enter your tracking number there.

Check your order history with the retailer (Amazon, or your local store) to see if a shipment’s really on its way.

Never share personal or financial info through a link from a text.

Turn on multi-factor authentication for your financial and shopping accounts to add another layer of security.

When and Where to Report Suspicious Messages

If a sketchy text pops up on your phone in Glastonbury, Greenwich, or anywhere else in Connecticut, what you do next could help protect not just you, but your neighbors too.

Alert Authorities and the BBB

The Better Business Bureau wants folks to report scams so they can spot patterns and issue warnings. You can file a report through the BBB Scam Tracker.

Another option is to contact your local police department. If you get phishing texts, send them to your mobile carrier.

Quick reporting gives authorities a better shot at tracking how scams change. They can warn communities from Enfield to East Hartford before more people get blindsided.

Here is the source article for this story: Package scams target holiday shoppers, CT BBB warns. Here’s how to stay safe.

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