That message about your parcel is probably fake

A small amount, a tight deadline and a link. Now that small charges on cheap parcels are real, the excuse has never been more plausible.

The message arrives by text or email, looks convincing, and asks for something small. A few euros of import duty. A failed delivery you need to rebook. An order that has been cancelled and needs "confirming". There is a link, and there is a deadline, usually forty-eight hours.

All three are the same scam. And the amount is not small out of modesty: it is small because at three euros you do not stop to think and at three hundred you do. What they want is not the three euros but your card details, which are worth everything afterwards.

This got harder in 2026, and it is worth saying so. Since 1 July this year the EU exemption on low-value consignments is gone, so small amounts of import duty on parcels from outside the EU genuinely exist now. The pretext became exactly as plausible as the scammers were always pretending it was.

The defence does not have to get more complicated, because there is only one and it works on every variant: never click the link - go and find the order where you placed it. Open the retailer's or carrier's own app or website, sign in the way you always do, and see whether anything is outstanding. If there is a real problem it is there. If it is not there, there was no problem. You never have to judge whether a message looks genuine, which is just as well, because that judgement gets harder every year.

A few things that confirm it if you want to look anyway. A carrier never asks for card details through a link in a text message. Look at the web address itself rather than the link text: scammers put the real brand in the text and something else in the address, and on a phone that address only appears if you press and hold. Watch for domains that are one character off the real one. And ask whether you are expecting anything at all - on Amazon, bol or any other shop your open orders simply sit in your account.

A second variant comes not from a carrier but from a shop: you have "won" something, or your entry is being "confirmed", and all that is left is to pay postage. Same shape, same goal, same defence.

If you have already entered your details: call your bank immediately and have the card stopped, then report it. The sooner that happens, the better the chance the payment can still be blocked. It is unpleasant, it happens to a great many people, and it is not a stupid moment - it is a message that arrived at the right one.

Questions

Are there real customs charges on small parcels?

Yes - the EU exemption for low-value consignments ended on 1 July 2026. But a genuine carrier does not collect them through a link in a text message. Always check the shipment in your own account.

How can I be sure a message is genuine?

By not judging it. Go directly to the retailer's or carrier's own site or app and see whether anything is outstanding there.

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