DHL clone scan maybe?

[One 48]

I can sense some eyes rolling already, and you are probably correct But still, cant work this one out, if its a scam its exposed, if its not, we live and learn

Life is full of scams these days, and they get ever more elaborate. I need help and perhaps re-assurance here please.

My potential scam is of a modelling related subject, well not quite, but we do a dedicated BM forum for it, dont want to say what or where from just now exactly as I like to play my cards close to my chest.

The order was made a while ago, perhaps some two weeks ago to a company in West Germany, finally and after some chase upping, they despatched order two days ago by DHL, the amount was for about £180 is of which about £45 ish was for postage, pretty steep, but thats what I was prepared for when clicking the order from W Germany to N Scotland ... email dually received, all looking good for delivery next Wednesday.

No mention of any extra email fee's in the official DHL shipping email I got ... however, yesterday got two suspicious calls on my Mobile that I've had for near 10 years of ownership of this number, both were quite unrelated obvious scam calls from Indian scam call center judging by their accents ... and please, am not being racist there and last thing I want to do is offend, but a lot of these calls do originate from there, even with cloned UK numbers, ... dealt with them swiftly ... then I got a text, saying it was from DHL and about my delivery, they want to me to pay them about £56 ,,, I looked at my email again for delivery and there is no mention of this at all?  I tried calling the company in Germany, but no answer after a couple of tries, looked at text again and found a phone number, called and guess what, Indian call center again ... alarm bells clanging here, but decided to see what was going on ... talked with the lady for a while, she knew a lot of my personal details, at no point was normal DPA procedure observed, she seemed more keen on getting me to pay this quite possible bogus amount,

The whole thing has left me a bit worried, will call company in W Germany again today, but even if this extra import charge of £55ish is true, its a bit steep for an order of £180 ish that already includes £45 ish of post and packing, even with Brexit, none of this makes sense to me?

[Black Knight]

Sounds like a scam to me

In my experience DHL will bring the parcel to you and ask for payment. These days drivers have mobile payment machines for card payments

If you can't pay a fee DHL driver will leave you with a bill and take the parcel away

[Chimpion]

I have no idea whether it's a scam, but VAT on £180+45 at 20% is £45. £10 handling fee isn't so outrageous. I'd be worried that trying to call the company gets you through to an Indian call centre though. Could you find the number of your local DHL centre and call them directly?

 

 

[One 48]

Thanks BN, its all very odd though, will report back on any resolution soon.

[cmatthewbacon]

What does the tracking say? I’d certainly never pay anything to a call centre based on a text message, but if the tracking info suggests it’s going to be delivered as planned, I’d see what happens on the day, and pay anything that needs paying through the web site.

 

That said, £55 could easily be 20% VAT and a collection handling fee…

best,

M.

[One 48]

1 minute ago, Chimpion said:

I have no idea whether it's a scam, but VAT on £180+45 at 20% is £45. £10 handling fee isn't so outrageous. I'd be worried that trying to call the company gets you through to an Indian call centre though. Could you find the number of your local DHL centre and call them directly?

 

 

Thanks, its actually £180 that already included £45 post and packing, so original order value of £135 so another £55 on top is a bit steep, we'll see, thanks.

[Whofan]

There are, in my mind, two options here.

 

1 - simply a coincidental scam. SCAM! Don't pay up.

 

2 - a member of staff at DHL Germany has sold your details to a scammer. SCAM !! don';t pay up.

 

As has been said by others, wait until DHL turn up and see what the drivwer says. My guess is he will say hewre's your parcel mate, and give it to you with no further ado.

[One 48]

Thanks Guys, its all a bit strange, ordered from same German company last year and after new Brexit rules, there was none of this hassle  or extra payment needed and I quite like what they do as a company, hence why I don't want to name and shame them already, that wouldn't be fair.

Best suggestion is for me to be patient and wait and see what happens on Wednesday delivery day next week and take it from there, thank you all very much, been through a lot of anxious stress recently, thanks again 👍

 

[Circloy]

£135 the magic figure at which the collection of UK VAT switches from the retailers responsibility to HMRC (usually via the courier). On a shipment of £180 total (goods + carriage) £55 could be the £36 VAT plus a £19 'clearance' fee which IIRC sounds correct for a typical courier. So these could be genuine.

 

That said any knowledgable scammer would know that too.

 

As @Chimpion suggests if Wednesday rolls round and you've heard/seen nothing I'd be tempted to contact DHL, advise them of the concerns & ask for 'advise'.

 

 

[psdavidson]

There is a DHL FAQ on customs charges which may help

https://parcel.dhl.co.uk/faqs/how-do-i-pay-duties-and-taxes-owed/

 

A few years ago, I had a package delivered by FedEx

They sent me an invoice for VAT and their handling fee separately after the parcel arrived. 

[Julien]

When Ive had DHL & UPS they have emailed and invoice, or you get a card through the door. 

[One 48]

Thanks all, will report back on the outcome.

[spruecutter96]

The Indian call-centre is pretty much guaranteed to be scammers. The fact that they knew you were due to have a delivery is the most worrying part. I've never been entirely comfortable about all the information out there, just floating around. I can't help the feeling that we have relinquished our privacy far too easily for comfort. Ain't technology just wonderful?

 

Chris. 

[Chimpion]

7 hours ago, spruecutter96 said:

The fact that they knew you were due to have a delivery is the most worrying part.

That's not a fact. Scammers send thousands of texts - they hope that some of the recipients were expecting a parcel and will fall for it. The details could have been stolen, but it's also possible they weren't.

 

[Bullbasket]

I had something similar a few years ago. I'd ordered a load of resin bits for Shermans from HLJ, and paid the price and the P&P. Then I got a message from the people who were delivering the items, saying that thy wanted another 35 euros before they would deliver. It was genuine, as it turned out. The delivery company, Colisimo were charging import duty, which I'd never encountered on anything that I had ordered from abroad before. I complained to HLJ about this additional cost, and they apologised, saying that they had encountered this problem with this courier before, but they couldn't do anything about it.

 

John.

[spruecutter96]

2 hours ago, Chimpion said:

That's not a fact. Scammers send thousands of texts

Thanks for the extra information. 

 

Chris.