Did I order a $699 Dyson vacuum when I was half asleep — or is this text message a scam?
Every couple of weeks I wake up around 3 a.m. and decide to do something productive with the few “bonus” hours I have until sunrise. That could mean playing 28 rounds of Spider Solitaire, deleting thousands of old emails or binge-watching some embarrassingly bad show on Netflix.
Usually, though, it involves getting caught up on online shopping. I’ve purchased “essentials” like jigsaw puzzles, dog toys and fancy spaghetti sauce while half asleep. I once sprang for a set of expensive earbuds, only to lose one the first time I used them.
So I wasn’t altogether shocked when I got a random text message informing me that the Dyson v11 vacuum I had ordered had arrived at a FedEx warehouse. I figured it must be the aftermath of another late-night splurge.
I am, after all, a longtime fan of Dysons and the v11 is the “animal” model I’ve had my eye on for a while. It’s especially adept at picking up pet hair, which is all too plentiful at my house.
Yet my order history showed no such purchase.
My next thought — which I admit was a little egotistical — was that it could be a gift from an anonymous donor. How nice!
Except ... maybe this was a hint from someone who thought my housekeeping skills left something to be desired? In which case maybe it wasn’t so nice?
I immediately called my daughter, who suffers from pet allergies and has been known to bring along her own cleaning supplies when she visits, along with an air purifier. (A Dyson, of course.)
Nope. It wasn’t her.
At that point, I belatedly recognized this for what it was: a scam.
Yep, it took me a while to figure out what most people would have recognized in about three seconds.
And yes, I am very late to this party; this type of scam has been around for at least a couple of years.
In my defense, though, the orange-and-purple FedEx logo looked so official. And there was a photo of that beautiful Dyson, stranded in a warehouse somewhere, just waiting for me to claim it.
Plus, I noticed none of the tell-tale signs like misspelled words or strange links.
The text was so authentic looking that I came dangerously close to clicking on a link that said “Find My Package,” but stopped myself in time.
And a good thing, because when I finally got around to Googling “FedEx scams,” there it was, on the FedEx website:
“FedEx does not request, via unsolicited mail, text or email payment or personal information in return for goods in transit or in FedEx custody. If you receive any of these or similar communications, do not reply or cooperate with the sender.”
Turns out, scam texts like this one are becoming increasingly common; consumers lost $86 million to this nefarious practice in 2020.
According to a recent column in the New York Times, text-message scams now outpace robocalls, possibly because government and industry crackdowns on robocalls are driving scammers to try new outlets.
And they aren’t just after money; they want your personal info like addresses and credit card numbers, which they sometimes turn around and sell to other crooks.
According to the New York Times, scammers use texts about phony package deliveries — like the one I got — information about health products and advisories about online banking.
That’s not all.
Those texts purporting to be from major retailers asking you to take a survey in exchange for a reward? Many of those are phony.
Makes you wonder if you can trust any texts these days — and that suspicion is not necessarily a bad thing. It could collectively save us millions of dollars.
By the way, I did get a follow-up text informing me that my Dyson could not be delivered because there was an outstanding tax of $1.32.
This time I didn’t hesitate. I hit delete.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
