Scam text messages and calls
Scam texts (also called smishing) copy parcel companies, toll roads, banks, tax offices and family members. They are short, urgent and built around one link or one phone number.
Short answer. Do not tap the link or call the number in an unexpected text. Check the claim through the company's own app or website, and call only on a number you found yourself. Then forward the text to your network's spam number (7726 in the UK, US, Canada and New Zealand) or report it where you live. Run the checks on an address or a message: paste the whole text.
The wording
Scam texts push you to act before you think. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre asks whether you are given "a limited time to respond (such as 'within 24 hours' or 'immediately')" (NCSC, read 29 October 2026). Common forms:
- A parcel waiting for a small fee or a new delivery time.
- An unpaid toll, fine or bill, with a penalty if you do not pay today.
- An account suspended, or a "KYC" or identity update needed.
- A refund or reward to claim.
- "Hi Mum" or "Hi Dad" from a new number, then a request for money.
Our checker looks for wording like this from scam messages in many countries. Normal causes: real companies send real reminders with the same words, so wording alone is graded as worth knowing, never as a warning sign. Many scam texts also use calm, ordinary words.
The phone number
Some scam texts ask you to call, not click. Australia's Scamwatch warns that scammers send "messages urging you to call a phone number that connects you to the scammer" (Scamwatch, read 29 October 2026).
Our checker reads each number in a pasted message on your device and shows its kind and country:
- Premium rate numbers cost more to call than an ordinary number. A company has no reason to make you pay to fix its mistake.
- A number in another country may be honest (a call centre abroad), but is worth knowing for a message that claims to be local.
- Free to call numbers (such as 0800, or 1-800 in North America) are normal for companies, and scammers use them too.
The number's kind cannot tell you who answers. Call a company only on a number from its own website or from your card. Sender names and numbers can also be faked: Scamwatch advises you to "Watch out for slight variations in caller or sender IDs like dots, special characters, or numbers" (Scamwatch).
The link
A scam text's link usually leads to a copy of a real site: a parcel company's payment page, a bank's sign-in page. Read the registered name before you do anything (our guide to look-alike addresses shows how), and see how to check if a link is safe.
How to check a text is real
- Open the company's own app or type its address, and look for the same message there.
- For a "family member" on a new number, call the old number you already have, or ask a question only they could answer.
- Search for the exact wording of the message with the word "scam". Scamwatch suggests this (Scamwatch).
Forward and report it
In the UK, the US, Canada and New Zealand, forward a scam text free to 7726, then send the number it came from when asked. In Australia, report it to Scamwatch. In India, report it on cybercrime.gov.in, or call 1930 if you lost money. In Ireland, report it to your local Garda station. Every body we list, with its source: Who to tell, by country.
Where a product helps
Start with what is free. Most phones can filter messages and calls from unknown senders, and many mobile networks block known scam numbers. Look in your phone's message and call settings.
Call and text filtering apps add shared lists of reported numbers. They help most against numbers that have already been reported many times, and least against a scam that started today or a faked sender ID.
If you tapped a link and signed in, a password manager and two-step sign-in limit the damage. See if you already clicked.
About this guide
Our checks that this guide explains: Phone numbers, Message wording. Each quote was read on the source's own page on the date shown. Legit Signals has no affiliate links: no company pays to be named here.
Last reviewed: 29 October 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us