I got a text:
Driver Chat: A message from the driver delivering your Amazon packages.
Tap here to reply [URL in short format]
Is this a thing? I did have a package not delivered today due to some unspecified problem, so I left delivery instructions to leave it at the front door and ring the doorbell. I can’t tell what the link is to, due to the format. I’m afraid of having my phone hacked or taken over.
What should I do?
Probably ignore it if it looks like something easy to spoof, but yes, there is Amazon driver chat contact sometimes.
I should add that the timing of the text does support its authenticity. It is 2 minutes before the email that told me that the package was not delivered. I was away from phone and computer and doorbell at the time. Perhaps he was trying to reach me before driving away, which would make the text moot now anyway. I think I will let it go and not respond.
Looks like “driver chat” is a real thing, but shortened URLs make it tough to sort them from potential scam attempts.
If the URL was a.co I believe that means it’s legit.
It is. I’m in a condo these days and unfortunately google maps sends drivers unfamiliar with the address around a blind corner up a hill to the back of the building with a delivery dock and locked doors. Despite the best shot at written directions I can manage (maybe overwritten, but it is hard to shorten) I occasionally get texts from confused drivers looking for access.
If you type a.co into your computer browser it redirects to amazon.com. It’s real. I would not trust any other shortened url in any text message.
And yes, Amazon drivers IME do occasionally text when they’ve got a delivery problem.
My situation is akin to @Tamarlane’s. My big building is on the corner of two boulevards with the street address on one of them. But all the entrances are on the unnamed not-quite alley that fronts the other two sides of the building. You can walk in vain along both boulevards and never see a door, a street number, nor any signs indicating where any door(s) might be. Confuses the noobie drivers. Although much more so from the oddball carriers than from Amazon.
So today (well, yesterday) I learned that Amazon drivers occasionally try to resolve delivery issues on the fly. Good to know, and thanks to everyone for the info, including about what a.co means in a shortened URL.
The package was actually delivered later, yesterday evening. The driver had apparently gotten my delivery request, because he did leave it by the front gate and did ring the doorbell.
You were right to be skeptical, tho. Delivery-related SMS spam is like the main malicious spam these days. Prompting people to click a link is even more scammy, wow.