Royal Mail “£1.99 fee” text — parcel held scam explained
Why “your parcel is on hold” SMS messages are usually fake, how to tell a Royal Mail scam from real tracking, and safe next steps.
Try the SMS checker or number lookup with any message or contact you are unsure about.
Royal Mail fee text — is it real? (Which? / MSE style question)
Royal Mail may text tracking updates for items you are expecting, but scam texts often appear when you are not waiting for a parcel, use a generic greeting, or demand a small fee via a random website.
Look for odd domains (royalmail-track.co, .xyz, .top), pressure to pay immediately, and links that do not start with royalmail.com or the official tracking host.
“Pay £1.99 to release your parcel” — why this pattern works
A low amount feels trivial, so people pay without checking. The site harvests card details for fraud, not postage.
Scammers rotate templates whenever one domain gets blocked — the wording stays similar.
What to do next
Paste the SMS into Hush’s checker for link and wording analysis. If you were not expecting a parcel, ignore and delete.
Track genuine parcels only via links you started from the retailer or by typing Royal Mail’s site yourself.