Scammers 
I have been getting a similar text as you @BryWisteria except the link isn’t so obviously ‘scammy’.
Oh yikes. The fact that they’re using a link with UPS written in it does make it harder to spot - although I bet it’s not a legit link. Good for you for being aware, Phoenix!
I’d urge anyone who gets a message like this, is waiting for a package, and isn’t sure to just call their local office (using a link from Google and never the link or phone number in the suspicious message) to make sure.
Shame on these scammers! 
It isn’t. I am not waiting for a package.
We must always be on alert for them. I do enjoy the calls sometimes. I remember I got a call about a government program to help reduce debt. They said they were calling to see if I qualified. 
. Given my job, I 100% know that this doesn’t exist here.
Anyways, I played along right up until giving them my credit card number. I started saying ‘4510’ (the standard beginning of the a lot of credit cards here.) Then I stopped and called them out on the scam. She got so mad she told me I was committing a crime by lying to her. . I laughed and told her what she was doing was the crime. She hung up.
I put these calls on speaker phone when my kids are around so they can learn to recognize them and feel empowered to hang up or mess with them.
Ugh, I get at least one of these a week. But for Australian services, anyway. They always have fake URLs like “auspostwebsite”, “auspostdelivery”, or something else. Anything but the actual “auspost.com.au.” Something to catch people who aren’t paying attention, I guess. I instantly delete them without reading them now; I’m so bored of them. 
I think you’re very smart for teaching your kids how to recognize and handle scammers! I’m doing the something similar but reversed with my parents. They have a tough time picking up on cues (like poor wording or strange language). It seems to help them to have set things to look for (ex. links without the business name in them, numbers that don’t match the business’s listed number, etc).
Here’s to hoping more people of all ages will be aware of scammers and will stay safe! 
The first one or two had me all ruffled up - the audacity of these scammers! - but now I’m more like you - when they come in I’m just, oh, really? Again? 
It seems like they pick up during certain times of year, especially near big holidays (probably because people are busy and not paying as close attention) 
I got a message this morning on email said it was geek squad. I called the number thinking it was geek squad and a guy got me to open something in my laptop that was a hacker. He had control of my laptop this morning. I had to factory reset. Freaking nightmare. My suggestion if u get any messages saying to pay a bill. Call the companys number off Google so u can be sure u reach this company and not the number provided in the message. While it’s unfortunate my laptop is wiped at least I still have it. I can’t afford another.got lucky
I’m glad things worked out in the end. 
In the worst-case scenario, you probably would have had to do a proper format on the drive, instead of just doing a “factory reset.” You likely wouldn’t lose your whole laptop—I’ve never seen something that bad happen ever. 
Yeah I don’t know what do a proper format means but thankyou darling 
For the record, you dealt with that hacking attack really well.
A proper format would be using another computer to download an installation of Windows, putting that on a USB stick, then booting your computer into BIOS, and selecting the USB stick to boot from. Then, when you install Windows, you format (wipe) your entire hard drive and complete a totally clean installation over it.
I do two of these a year, and it’s pretty quick, but I also use fast Samsung NVMe M.2 SSDs as my drives. So, I could probably walk you through it over the phone. But yes, it is easier to avoid this solution.
That’s scary! I’m glad you were able to catch the scammer before it was too late and that you saved your laptop
Shame on those scammers!
Seconding this! 
Thankyou darling 
Thankyou for helping me
Yeah it was freaky. I had to keep shutting my laptop down so he couldn’t finish what he was doing. I was messaging starborn and an HP guy trying to see what they had to say. In the middle of me typing to the hp guy he typed f u Andre to the hp guy and shut the window in the middle of the talk with the hp guy. Everytime I noticed they were moving my mouse and trying to download something I kept hitting the shutdown button. Until starborn said shut off the wifi. So when I turned it off the last time. Turned it back on before I put my passcode in I turned off the wifi on my laptop and that allowed me to factory reset my laptop. So hopefully it’s okay now. Thankyou bae 
That sounds major, I hope it’s all good now. 
Thankyou hahaha I freaking hope so too love
I’m so paranoid, I’d use a separate device, change all my passwords, then buy another laptop, but that’s just me. 
Then I’d blow up the old one. Lol
Do you get laptops that fell off a truck? They’re so expensive.
Yeah if I could. I could not even afford another on payments. I’ve been literally dead broke. Literally 0$ in my account
I haven’t had a laptop in years. My last one when it finally kicked the dust, I took a sledgehammer to it, then set it alight so noone could take it out the bin and use it. My husband walked away from the madness shaking his head. 
No wonder me and Loki get on well, both nutters
If you remember my rambling about how files aren’t deleted how it’s implied that they are, that’s a lot of proof that you took the safest approach to protecting your data.
It’s possible to recover data from an HDD tossed into a lake and sat there for a while. So… You did good.
The only danger with fire is ensuring you don’t breathe in any fumes from what’s burning there since it’s absolutely terrible. Silicone and all that crap. Ugh. But it sounds like you didn’t.