In the weeks leading up to Christmas, huge numbers of parcels are delivered by Royal Mail and if you’re not at home when the postman calls then she leaves a card telling you where and when  you can pick up the item and a phone number for more information.

But scammers have been creating fake ‘missed delivery” cards that look very similar to the original Royal Mail version which is called the ‘Something For You’ card.

The scammer posts the fake card through your door and hopes that you phone the number on the card.

If you do, it’s a very expensive call to a long recorded message and you will may only notice when your phone bill arrives just how expensive it was.

There are other variants on this scam, including one where the delivery is claimed to be highly valuable and you must phone urgently or one where you have to phone and pay a charge for re-delivery. Of course there is no such item.

Take care before calling the number on any mail delivery cards put through your letter box.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.