When I order something online, as soon as I get the tracking number from the vendor I go to the USPS/UPS/FedEx/DHL website and sign up for email alerts. After than I get a message every time the item gets scanned along the way, including when the item gets delivered to my mail box or porch. Those alerts always include the date, time, location, as well as info like 'in-transit' or 'delivered'. Occasionally there's a missing update, but I've never received a bogus update that claimed the item was delivered when it actually wasn't. I can see how a shady vendor can generate a 'label created' event for an item that doesn't exist, but how can they fool the carrier's system into logging a phony 'picked up' or 'delivered' scan?