The United States Postal Service is warning of a scam involving text messages that ask for information in order for a package to be delivered.
They’re only like 18mo late on this one. So far I’ve seen USPS, FedEx, DHL and UPS flavors of this scam.
I love how mine would get progressively more broken in English. Each day a new text with a new link and more failed grammar. Thankfully they gave up after a week.
There is probably a reason for this, the carriers start blocking these, so they have to break the words so they bypass those blocks.
We had these in Finland two years ago, it originates probably from Russia, so we are their sandbox for these kind of cyber shit. Our carriers found out some way to block them and they are not anymore happening. One day our cyber security center just informed that they have co-operated with carriers to block them permanently. I believe the technique is not made public.
Edit: did some digging, so it was keyword based blocking in the network + Europol raided the servers which commanded the malware
I’ve gotten a bunch of these too.
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I’ve had multiple per day for the last week.
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Same, and they’re all from international numbers too!
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Reply with a dick pic
This is the only reason I have to keep using shitty Google Messages 😡
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And that screenshot appears to be the Google Messages app
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Your screenshot is showing texts screened by the Google Messages app. Nothing to do with Verizon.
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I got a really believable scam text a couple of weeks ago from a purported collection agency. I’m having some debt issues and it looked very real. The fact that they didn’t say my name or who they represented were obvious clues, but I could definitely see myself not thinking about that and downloading their attached PDF.
Dude I got one too. I even Googled the website and it came up as legit. I just ignored it because fuck collection agencies. They can’t do anything If they can’t verify it’s you. Also I don’t have debt beyond my car payment which I’m ahead on so that was another hint.
Good on you for figuring it out!
What worries me is how many people didn’t figure it out.
Not only USPS. I got one today from “Canada posts” from a UK number. (I’m in Canada btw).
All of the numbers to me have been +44, which I’m pretty sure is the UK.
Am in the UK, can confirm that’s our country code.
Same for me. I’m in the Mid-Atlantic part of the US. I’ve gotten one every day for the last week. They all have been sent straight to spam though.
Please forward these text messages to spam@uspis.gov to help get the scam websites taken down and spam numbers blocked. Yes, you can send text messages directly to email addresses.
AOL warns email users to not open attachments in any emails offering Britney Spears nude pics
I’ve been getting these for ages now… UPS, USPS, endless scam texts all the time!
Ive been getting these texts everyday for the past couple weeks. Always from a different overseas #. I always block and delete, but its still happening.
Yeah same, from a +44 number for me. I laughed and reported it as spam.
That’s what I did. Then I looked in my Google messages spam folder and there were dozens of them.
Waste their time by engaging but giving fake information. I mentioned this in another comment, but the volume of scam shit I get went down after I started engaging with it and making them filter me out rather than me filtering myself out like the scams are intended to do.
It annoys me that they use different (probably spoofed) numbers that basically make it impossible to block them
Google messages has done a good job blocking them before I see them. My spam filter is full of them.
Been getting these for literal months. Unfortunately the people who will fall for this won’t read this warning.
It’s been going on for at least a year. The scammers got exactly what they wanted, this warning means nothing now other than to signal the scammers that they need a new method.
I got one few hours ago 🤩. (I’m in Czechia so it was obviously some czech version)
I didn’t realize it was international.
Lol I knew it was a scam because nobody fucking sends me mail.
😥
these have been all over the UK for years. ngl first time i saw one i almost fell for it since i actually did have an order due
That’s what they’re counting on. You’ll glance at it and in a single moment make a bad decision that exposes your finances.
There’s also a recent scam involving Nigerian princes, I hear…
Also called the advanced fee scam
Canada has been getting these scams for well over a decade. People still fall for it even though it’s BRUTALLY OBVIOUS ITS A SCAM. Why would Canada Post text you?
A lot of the phone scams seem to target Chinese. There’s some that tell you what’s up in English and Chinese (which is a sign right there, as English and French are the official languages) in a recording and then say hit 1 for English and 2 for Chinese.
I’d occasionally hit 1 for shits and giggles and act nervous about the warrant or my package stuck in customs or whatever they were trying to say. Early on, there would be someone trying to engage. First time buddy asked my name and I pointed out that he was trying to contact me so he should already know. Buddy got mad and demanded why I hit the button instead of hanging up lmao. But eventually it would just disconnect if you hit the English option. And I don’t know why Chinese so attempts to troll them on that line didn’t last long.
Those calls seem to come in waves. Or maybe trolling them a bit gets them to add you to their do not call list and I only get them when someone starts a new scamming shop. I’d like to think I’m annoying them more than they are annoying me lol.