DPD has urged people to report an “incredibly rare” but terrifying scam that makes its own drivers unknowingly deliver packages into a criminal’s hands.
A social media user posting on TikTok has gone viral after they documented their friend’s experience when an unexpected package arrived at their home.
TikTok user @shonelise said her friend nearly fell victim to an attempt by scammers to collect a delivery “accidentally” made to their home.
Officials have warned that people posing as the residents at their addresses order and track items using their details, and attempt to collect the ill-gotten packages while dressed as a DPD staffer.
The TikToker explained the scam seemed “quite clever”, and DPD has issued an urgent warning telling people to report any suspicious activity.
Taking to the social media platform, @shonelise said her best friend received a package at her home from Sky that was addressed to her dad.
After receiving the box, she said she would contact the firm if there was “anything wrong” with the item, and the driver walked away “in a huff”.
Feeling the encounter was unusual, she and her mum opened the package and found an iPhone 14 with a SIM card that her “dad hadn’t ordered”.
He called Sky, telling representatives his details were used fraudulently, and found that another had been delivered the week before.
But, at that time, no one was home, and someone had intercepted the DPD delivery at their front door.
They figured that, since it had worked the first time, the fraudsters had used her dad’s details to order another phone but failed to head off the parcel before it arrived.
The TikTok user said the scammer at the door was dressed in a DPD shirt to “try and pretend to be them and take the parcel back”.
They said the idea was “quite clever to be fair”, but warned people to “be wary of your details and of fake DPD drivers taking deliveries off your doorsteps”.
After the video went viral, DPD officials said the scam is “a version of a known identity fraud” that “involves criminals getting hold of an individual’s personal information and using it to buy high-value items”.
A spokesperson for the company said: “From a DPD point of view, this presents as a normal delivery and our driver is simply doing their job and delivering the package to the correct address, unaware of the scam.
“The criminals track the delivery and then attempt to recover the phone from the recipient, by posing as DPD staff.
“We would like to reassure readers that it is an incredibly rare fraud scam, but if you are impacted by it, steps you can take include reporting it to Action Fraud and contacting your bank or credit card provider and the phone provider.”
