POLICE have urged residents to remain vigilant against fraudsters posing as parcel delivery companies as the borough prepares for Christmas.

Officers, based on intelligence from UK Finance, have said that the criminals send out phishing emails pretending to be from a well-known delivery companies and say that they were unable to deliver a package.

These emails may ask the recipient to pay a fee or provide additional details in order to rearrange the delivery.

A spokesperson for South Yorkshire Police said: “Be aware of an increased risk of scam phone calls and texts impersonating delivery companies, as well as fake delivery notices posted through letterboxes.

“Similarly, these will ask for advance payment or for customers to provide information that is later used to defraud them.

“Customers are typically tricked into clicking on links to seemingly genuine websites requesting personal and financial information such as their address, date of birth, mobile number or bank details, which are then used to commit fraud.

“In some cases, victims later receive a call from the criminal pretending to be from their bank’s fraud team, trying to persuade them to move their money to a safe account or reveal their pass codes.

“Customers can report suspected scam texts to their mobile network provider by forwarding them to 7726, and forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk, the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) suspicious email reporting service.”