Royal Mail text scams have skyrocketed in the past year

Analysists from card payment provider, Dojo have revealed the top ten brands most used in SMS scams by fraudsters across the UK.

The data looked at the number of Google searches for well-known brands and scams, for example 'Royal Mail text scam', and found that the percentage increase year-on-year was staggeringly high.

Google search data revealed that 30,200 UK residents are searching for Royal Mail scam texts per month - a whopping 9,400% increase in the last 12 months.

Scammers often target victims by impersonating the Royal Mail due to the nature of their service, as it may seem reasonable to request personal details to deliver a package.

Second on the list was PayPal, which had a monthly search volume of 8,300, a figure which has decreased by 87% over the past year.

Following closely in third place is Halifax, with 6,000 people having searched for Halifax scam texts per month.

Just behind Halifax was delivery service DPD with over 4,900 searches a month.

DPD in particular had seen the highest search increase of 24,100% in the past 12 months, with many scammers trying to impersonate the company to retrieve the details of unsuspecting customers.

Naveed Islam, Chief Information Security Officer at Dojo, said: "Criminals are getting more creative with their deceit.

"Due to lockdown and the resulting closure of the high street, people’s buying habits have shifted to online.

"It is not surprising that we’ve seen an increase in criminals tapping into these changing behaviours with fake parcel delivery scams. For the many people, these frauds are incredibly convincing and traumatic. 

"This rise is being monitored and managed by the UK police’s dedicated team, Action Fraud. But in the short-term, there are some ways consumers can protect themselves and minimise their risk of digital fraud."

Alongside releasing the new data, Dojo also outlined five tips for spotting fake text messages: 

. Check if you were you expecting a message from that company

. Check you have signed up to receive SMS messaging from that company

. Check the text is from a number you recognise - google the number before opening

. Check for poor spelling and grammar, or mistakes to the company’s name

. Never input sensitive data from SMS messaging links

A full list of the top ten brands most used in SMS scams, and their average monthly search rate, can be seen below:

1. Royal Mail - 30,200

2. PayPal - 8,300

3. Halifax - 6,000 

4. DPD - 4,900

5. DVLA - 980

6. Amazon - 650

7. Apple Pay - 310

8. Virgin Media - 260

9. Tesco - 220

10. Gov.uk - 200