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.
Oh jeez thanks USPS hadn’t noticed…
Same, and they’re all from international numbers too!
I wish i could just disable international texting completely, but google OF COURSE removed that in favor of a slider that also requires consent to send telemetry to google. I opted for it, so I dont have to deal with this… but I dont like the change. It used to just be a slider for “disable international texting” or the like.
Reply with a dick pic
This is the only reason I have to keep using shitty Google Messages 😡
My Verizon phone does just fine at filtering them,(Im stupid af sometimes its fine)That’s a screenshot of my spam call list in Google Messages specifically
And that screenshot appears to be the Google Messages app
well im dumb
Your screenshot is showing texts screened by the Google Messages app. Nothing to do with Verizon.
fml
I’ve gotten like 4 of these, and it’s honestly surprising to me that anyone with more than a dozen brain cells falls for these scams, since they’re comically obvious.
So yeah I guess that actually accounts for like a good third or so of the country.
They know that there will be a certain number of the population that will see these attempts as obvious. Those texts aren’t meant for us. They’re meant for the elderly and less savvy.
They prey on the vulnerable. That’s really all you have to say.
You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.
fails to conceal giggle
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Well, you say that but coincidentally I was expecting a parcel from a courier and received a well crafted text saying that delivery attempt failed.
It’s easy to fall into a trap like this. It was only when I paused wondering why are they asking for my address did I realise its a scam.
It was sent at 8:30, right during personal rush hour time.
Same thing happened to my wife. It was perfect timing with an actual expected package that missed delivery. Send out enough of these and you’re bound to get a few hits from people in the exact scenario you’re scamming for.
Same here. My teen ordered something that was supposed to arrive this coming weekend. However it arrived early by USPS and the first I learned about it was when he got that scam text. I told him it looked like a scam, but I checked the real tracking number and the package was delivered.
I wonder if they have a data source for real deliveries to target - the online store did use some third party tracker that I accidentally clicked on before going to USPS
Honestly, this is just an unfortunate artifact of the ubiquitous nature of technology these days, and the fact that most people don’t think too hard about what’s actually happening or how this crazy amalgamation of information and services operates, and simply consider it “convenient magic”.
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.
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.
I’ve been getting these for ages now… UPS, USPS, endless scam texts all the time!
AOL warns email users to not open attachments in any emails offering Britney Spears nude pics
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.
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.
Took em long enough, been getting these for months
Lol I knew it was a scam because nobody fucking sends me mail.
😥
There’s also a recent scam involving Nigerian princes, I hear…
Also called the advanced fee scam
I’ve got like 10 in the last week. Every single one has got an “eat my asshole” response.
Tell me you don’t understand that responding at all guarantees you are on a spammer sell list, without telling me that you don’t know that responding at all puts you on the scammers sell list.
I don’t know but he’s making it a more valuable resource. He is letting the spammers charge more for his number when they resell it since it’s verified.
Yeah. Spammers love to be told to suck a disk. Known active numbers are worth more, absolutely.
Hell, I was looking at the spam filter on Messages and accidentally opened one. It was sent as an RCS message and I was worried I’d be flagged and spammed more because of the Read receipt.
I did the same thing just a bit ago… assuming i could still forward it to VZW spam prevention team (S-P-A-M: 7726)
but alas
At the same time it also costs them a penny each time I send them one, might just start sending images and costing them more instead.
I’ve also worked with SMS APIs and roughly know the costs from provider to provider.
You should also forward each message to spam@uspis.gov (yes, you can text to email addresses) if you want to help take down the scam sites and get the numbers blocked.
