Beware of the message that alerts you to the arrival of a package: it is a scam to activate paid services. How it works
A stringent message, a few words that create alarm: "A package waiting for xxx (your name, please check the details and confirm". The text is followed by a link to a web page. This is the new scam that is running in these hours in Italy: the user receives an SMS in which he is invited to click on a link to receive a package. In reality, it's a trap: once you click on the URL you activate a paid subscription.
The scam devised by the malicious is certainly not new, it had already been proposed in the past, but always manages to have a good success. An inexperienced person can really think that the message comes from the Post Office or from a courier and press on the link to find out which package it is. But in return they get nothing, quite the opposite. Money will also be deducted from the SIM credit. In some cases, in addition to activating paid subscriptions, the scammers also ask for users' personal data in order to use them on the Internet or resell them on the dark web.
How the SMS scam works
As you may have guessed, the scam has a rather simple operation: a message sent to an unsuspecting user, who believes in what is written and clicks on the link to get more information. At that very moment a paid service is activated on the smartphone and the money is deducted from the remaining credit. How to recognize that this is a scam? Very simple, check the number that sent you the message. If the first digits of the sender's number are from the ten of 40 (e.g. 44, 45, 46) then it means that it is a scam.
How to protect yourself from SMS scam
If you have activated the paid service by mistake, you can deactivate it by calling the service center of your operator. The procedure is very similar for each operator: TIM, Wind, Vodafone, Three and Iliad
.