Package Says Delivered but Never Arrived: The Scams Behind It
Also filed under: delivery text scam · redelivery fee scam · package rerouting scam · carrier account phishing
Start with the easy half: any text asking you to pay a redelivery fee or 'confirm delivery details' through a link is a scam, every time, no exceptions. USPS, FedEx, and UPS do not collect $1.95 by text message to release a package. That text exists to harvest your card number, which is worth considerably more than $1.95.
The harder half is the box that genuinely says delivered and genuinely is not there. Sometimes that's a porch pirate or a photo of someone else's doormat. But there's a quieter version where the package was rerouted before it ever reached your street, by someone driving your own carrier account, and the delivery scan is telling you the truth about the wrong address.
How the con runs
The rerouting play starts with a phished login. A fake delivery text or email walks you into entering your USPS, FedEx, or UPS account credentials on a lookalike page, sometimes weeks before anything goes missing. Carrier accounts are a strangely underprotected vault: they show every inbound package and, crucially, offer intercept and redirect features built for honest people who move.
With your login, the scammer watches your incoming tracking like a stock ticker. When something worth taking shows up, electronics, sneakers, anything resalable, he files a delivery change: hold at a different location, or redirect to an address he controls, ideally a vacant house, which has the advantage of a porch and the absence of witnesses. The package arrives, the scan says delivered, and both statements are accurate.
You see 'Delivered' and check your porch, your neighbor, your bushes. Nothing. The listed delivery address, if you dig into the tracking detail, is one you never set. That mismatch is the fingerprint of the whole scheme.
The redelivery-fee text is the same family, shallower graft. No package is involved at all, or the scammer simply sprays thousands of texts knowing most people are waiting on something. The 'fee' page takes your card, and the real charges come later, from merchants you've never heard of. It costs him nothing when you're not expecting a package; you just delete it and he's already texted the next thousand numbers.
Play defense
- Never tap links in delivery texts or emails. Track packages by typing the carrier's site yourself or using the official app, and paste the tracking number there.
- Treat any requested fee as the end of the conversation. Real redelivery, when it exists at all, is arranged through the carrier's own site and rarely costs anything.
- Put strong unique passwords and two-factor authentication on your USPS, FedEx, and UPS accounts. These accounts can redirect your property; secure them like they matter, because apparently they do.
- Turn on the carriers' legitimate notification services (like USPS Informed Delivery) so you know what's genuinely inbound and can spot a fake text by its wrongness.
- Review your carrier accounts occasionally for delivery instructions or address changes you didn't make.
- Forward scam delivery texts to 7726 (SPAM) so carriers can block the sending numbers, then delete.
Already got hit?
- Gave card details to a fee page: call your card issuer's fraud line now, kill the card, and dispute anything that's already posted.
- Entered carrier account credentials: change that password immediately, enable two-factor authentication, and remove any delivery instructions or addresses you didn't add. Change the password anywhere you reused it.
- Package rerouted: report it to the carrier's fraud channel, USPS mail theft goes to the Postal Inspection Service at uspis.gov, FedEx at 1-800-463-3339, UPS at 1-800-742-5877, and give them the tracking detail showing the changed address.
- Contact the retailer or shipper. A package delivered to an address you never set is a non-delivery, and most retailers will reship or refund while the carrier investigates.
- Report the scam at reportfraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov. Rerouting rings run in volume, and your tracking detail is exactly the kind of evidence that stacks.
Questions people ask at 2 a.m.
Is a text asking for a redelivery fee from USPS or FedEx real?
No. USPS, FedEx, and UPS never request payment or personal details by text link to complete a delivery. It's a phishing text designed to capture your card number. Delete it, forward it to 7726 to report it, and track packages only through the carrier's official site or app.
Why does my package say delivered when I never got it?
Common causes are a mis-scan, delivery to a neighbor, or porch theft, so check the tracking's delivery photo and address detail first. If the detail shows an address or hold you never set, your carrier account was likely compromised and the package rerouted. Secure the account, then report it to the carrier and the retailer.
Who refunds me when a rerouted package is stolen, the carrier or the seller?
Start with the seller. Retailers are responsible for getting your order to the address you gave them, and most will reship or refund a package that tracking shows went elsewhere. File the carrier fraud report in parallel, and if you paid by credit card, a non-delivery dispute is your backstop.