‘Canada Post’ text scam with your name and postal code hits Mississauga and Brampton

Another new text scam is floating around Mississauga and Brampton today. Unusually this one purports to be from Canada Post and includes the receiver’s name in all caps.

The text appeared on October 28. It reads “Message for [RECIPIENT] from Canada Post. A delivery fee is due to Canada Post parcel delivered [Postal code]. Reply yes to receive your invoice.”

Of note not only is the name in this scam text accurate to the receiver’s phone number but so is the postal code.

As is typical for these kinds of scam texts there is no such parcel. It, like other texts of its kind, is a ruse designed to extract personal information from the target.

Once one replies to a text like this they will then generally ask for personal information such as banking information, credit card numbers, date of birth, SIN and ATM pins.

These types of scams are called “Smishing” by cyber security experts, a a combination of “Short Message Service” (i.e. a text message) and the word “phishing”.

Residents who receive this scam are advised to delete it and not reply, as a simple reply can signal to scammers that your number is still active.