Colin Brown fell for a parcel delivery scam that is hitting mobile phones around the country, but after escaping with his bank balance intact, he has a warning for others.

Brown had been waiting for a parcel from China, so when a text message pinged on his phone asking for “missing postage fees”, the Nelson man had no hesitation in selecting the message’s link.

It was followed by a request of $1.50 for a “Customs shortfall”.

“I thought $1.50, you’ve got to be joking. So I sent out my Westpac credit card details and the transaction didn’t proceed.”

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To ensure the payment went through, Brown then used his ANZ card.

He got a text from ANZ querying the amount, which had been changed to “Euro 1,00”, and was prompted to call the bank if it raised suspicions.

“That’s when I twigged and thought, uh oh, I’ve been scammed.”

Afterwards he realised the text had an Australian country code, +61, which should have rung alarm bells.

Brown, 73 said he was relatively tech-savvy, using devices and the internet “all the time” so after discovering the scam he…