MaltaPost has warned customers against carriers transporting items to Malta which transmit fictitious tacking events, providing false information on parcels by claiming goods have arrived.

In a warning issued to social media, MaltaPost wrote:

“Please be informed that there are sellers, especially those operating from China who use various carriers to transport their items to Malta.

“Some of these carriers transmit fictitious tracking events providing information that their parcels have arrived in Malta when in fact this is not correct.”

It reminded customers that valid postal tracking numbers should consist of two letters, nine digits and two letters at the end. The two letters at the end must represent the country of origin, for example CN for China, for these to be tracked by MaltaPost.

“Once an item arrives at our administration, a delivery attempt will be made on the following working day unless withheld by customs, in which case a tracking event will be shown.”

An example from Cainiao Global shipping, showing that the item arrived in Malta when actually it did not, is shown in the below image: