FedEx scam text

How to tell

In order. The first one holds even when the rest of the message looks completely real, which is the situation most people are actually in.

1. It wants money or personal details before the package will be released.

   FedEx states this one without exception: "We never request payment or personal information in exchange for releasing a package." It holds even if you are expecting a parcel, which is what makes it the tell worth remembering. The one case where FedEx really may text you about money is different and checkable: for an inbound international package "FedEx may contact you via email or SMS with a secure link to pay applicable duties and taxes", and FedEx says to verify those messages and the amount in the FedEx Import Tool rather than through the link. So the question is never whether a fee is mentioned, it is whether the fee is duties and taxes that the Import Tool also shows.

2. It asks for account credentials or identity details and you did not contact FedEx first.

   "FedEx does not request, via unsolicited mail, email, or text, any personal information pertaining to your account credentials or identity." Note how much narrower this is than the Postal Service rule: it is about unsolicited requests for who you are and how you sign in, not about links. A FedEx message can legitimately contain a link.

3. The link does not go to fedex.com.

   The warning FedEx had posted when this record was compiled was specifically about emails and SMS pushing URLs on the .shop domain, and FedEx lists "Misspelled website or email addresses, like fedx.com or fed-ex.com" among the warning signs. This is the weakest of the three, because a convincing lookalike is cheap and you have to read carefully to spot one. Use it to confirm, not to decide.

What FedEx actually does

Track the shipment yourself. Type fedex.com into the address bar, or open the FedEx app, and enter the tracking number from your own order confirmation. If the message is about duties and taxes on a package coming from abroad, FedEx says to check the message and the amount in the FedEx Import Tool. Reach either one the way you normally would, never through a link in a message you did not ask for.

Where to report it

FedEx

Its fraud page says to forward suspicious messages to abuse@fedex.com. Without clicking the link, email that address with a screenshot showing the sender’s number and the date.

Your mobile carrier

Forward the message to 7726, which spells SPAM on a keypad. It is free on every major carrier.

The Federal Trade Commission

Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. FedEx’s own page points victims at the FTC and at the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.