Afterpay Scam Texts: How to Spot a Fake Afterpay Message

Afterpay — the buy-now-pay-later service with tens of millions of U.S. users — has become a regular target for text scam impersonation. The Afterpay text scam follows familiar patterns: a fake payment failure notification or account issue that creates urgency and pushes the recipient to click a fraudulent link.

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What Afterpay Scam Texts Look Like

“Afterpay: Your payment of $47.25 has failed. Update your payment method to avoid account suspension: [link]”

“Afterpay: Unusual activity detected on your account. Verify your identity to continue using Afterpay: [link]”

“Afterpay: Your account has been temporarily limited. Click here to restore full access: [link]”

“Afterpay: A new device has been linked to your account. If this wasn’t you, secure your account: [link]”

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How to Tell If an Afterpay Text Is Real

Real Afterpay texts come from Afterpay’s registered short codes. Afterpay’s official domain for links is afterpay.com. Any other domain is fraudulent.

Check your Afterpay account directly: open the Afterpay app or go to afterpay.com. If there’s a genuine payment issue or account problem, it will be visible there — you don’t need to use the link from the text.

Afterpay does send legitimate payment reminders — but these don’t ask you to click through to a login page or enter payment information through an unfamiliar link.

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What to Do and How to Report

Do not click links in texts you’re unsure about. Check your Afterpay account directly.

Report Afterpay phishing: Contact Afterpay’s support team at afterpay.com/contact-us.

Forward to 7726. Report at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

If you entered Afterpay login credentials on a fake site: Change your Afterpay password immediately. Contact Afterpay support. If payment methods are linked to your account, contact those banks or card issuers as well.

→ Back to Pillar: https://www.scammed.org/text-scams/