Fake shipping notifications are nothing new. We’ll all seen them show up in our email. A couple of years ago when these first started showing up, these innovative scams were very effective. Today, these scams have become so commonplace they’re almost laughable. Two identical USPS Shipping Notification scam emails showed up today. The only difference between them was their return address and the URL of the link within the email.
The current fad is to send a message which reads:
Our courier couldnt make the delivery of parcel to you at 25th March.
Print label and show it in the nearest post office.
Because I like to look at the upside as well as the down, let’s take a look at the full scenario.
Good news: The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well on the internet.
Bad news: The guy behind this template can’t spell worth a damn. Once again, we have to put up with poorly written spam.
Good news: Whoever bought these templates overpaid. With luck, they’ll be disappointed with the results they achieve and will give up on this line of work.
Bad news: The sellers are probably having a Walmart-sized super sale and there will likely be many more emails coming. More bad news: They’re probably happy with their line of work while the rest of us must wonder, what’s next?
The best solution for dealing with these is to simply mark them as spam and hope your email program flags future iterations of this particular scam so you won’t see it again.
By the way, in the time it took me to write this post, another shipping notification came in. Another scammer scammed with an inferior product. If they handed out brains along with all that initiative, the rest of us might actually be in trouble.
Did you like this McKenna Sunday Scam Tip? If so, learn more about everyone’s favorite amateur sleuth.
More about McKenna
McKenna is a fictional amateur sleuth who stars in the McKenna Mysteries. The former skip tracer turned apartment manager lives in Honolulu, has an eye for the ladies, a knack for finding trouble, and a long-dead Hawaiian who has taken him on as lost cause needing a little extra kokua (help). Find him in “Photo Finish” and “Kauai Temptations,” the first two McKenna Mysteries and as the narrator of “Life’s Shorts,” an anthology about life, Hawaiian style, combined with a twist of grumpy.
What a pain.
Whoops – I should have entered [censored] ’cause it took the greater than / less than symbols as some HTML code and stripped ’em out of my post.
CORRECTED: Of course, if it also offers to help you increase the size of your [censored], you can be pretty sure it is a scam.
Of course, if it also offers to help you increase the size of your , you can be pretty sure it is a scam.
Yes this was helpful. Thank you very much. If I don’t know them I don’t open them.
It was very helpful. Thank you. I’ve checked a few, when they say they’re from family, but if I open and find the want me to open something else, I mark them as spam. Now I’ll know other ways to determine without opening anything.
I ignore the scammers too!
Thanks it was helpful
Having worked for layers over the years, and having owned businesses I feel that I am aware of all of the pitfalls to social media and e-mails and phone scams but what I can’t seem to stop if cellphone calls and calls at home that are computerized. Sometimes they call ten times a day if you don’t answer the calls and even if you do they keep redailing. I am on a do not call list but it does not good at all. I hate paying for all of the cellphone calls that come in never mind interfering with my day. As smart as you feel you are, these connivers are smarter in how to try to scam you, fleece you, or sell you something. Just seems that there really has to “BE A LAW” or agencies that can actually DO something about these calls especially.
I have vented; thanks for listening. 🙂
Love your advice Terry.
Cynthia
I’m always leary of these sort of emails. Appreciate you using your voice to spread the word.
I get those scam emails about a package from UPS or FedEx all the time. The next scam is the one about needing to appear at a court hearing. Courts don’t do that. I should know, I work with the court system. Too many scam.
I get these scam emails also and delete them.
Interesting post. I have received several of these emails, and they usually show up in my spam folder.
I’m always grateful the spammers can’t spell, it makes it easier to delete them! (and for the person above, I don’t know if nomorobo works on cell phones but it’s worth looking into!)
This column is always helpful. Depressing to know there are so many scams out there, though. And LinkedIn is relentless.
Oh yes! The misspelling is a dead giveaway! No legitimate company would use misspellings, incomplete sentences or bad grammar. Isn’t that why we so love the delete button? 🙂
Thank you for a helpful article.
If it doesn’t look right I delete it. Better to be safe than sorry!
anything that looks suspicious i mark as span and delete them.i also get alot of fake emails saying there from my bank or paypal trying to get my info.watch out for those too
Very helpful! Thanks.
I mark them as phishing scams and let my email program take it from there. Anything that has a misspelling in the subject line or those with an email address from another country.
I just delete them. They seem to come in waves – several, then none, then several again.
And now I’m getting some that say I need to appear in court. Don’t these people realize we are not stupid? OR do they really get people to respond to these?
I try and block them when I get them.
Much as I hate these scams, I hate the robot phone calls more. Especially when they come to my cell phone and use my minutes. We are on the No Call Lists, but it doesn’t stop them!!!
Get lots of these. Just delete them.
Now, after reading this, I realize we got one of those, claiming there was a parcel. We knew we hadn’t ordered anything, and it sounded odd, so we just deleted it. Otherwise, the ones I usually get are the Nigerian scammers.
I wish I could just receive things that I would like to see and that the criminals would leave us all alone. Thank you for the contest. It is exciting!
Loved this article and yes I get these all the time. Lately here its been phone call say we have down loaded a virus, which we haven’t.
Great article. When I see this type of stuff, I always wonder why people just don’t apply their efforts to legitimate work. Silly of me, I know.
Great books!
Yahoo doesn’t always do so a hot job at filtering out the spam. I’ve seen several versions of this email. Most of the time it’s “from” USP or FedEx. I appreciate you writing these kinds of tips. I also enjoy reading you newsletter.
Thank you for the information, very interesting.
Very interesting. Your right, never open just delete.
All the spam gets so cursed infuriating. Thanks for the post.
I found it to be interesting, thanks for info!
These scam emails going automatically in my span folder. Thanks for the heads up.
I’ve received this type of scam emails and it’s automatically caught by my spam filter.
So many of these scams seem so obvious to me, which just reminds me there are a lot of people without common sense or smarts, and the elderly are always easily scammed.
Thanks for the caveat. Sad that scams are alive, well & thriving. 🙁
Thank you so much for this interesting information. Thanks for the giveaway.
Thanks so much for the info. There are a,lot of great tips. It’s a shame our anti-virus software can’t cipher through these too.
Very helpful-and I agree about the spelling. I get the ones that misuse your/you’re so they are an automatic “send to trash”. McKenna gives good tips!!
Yes I hate it when people try to scam others
These scames are annoying! I don’t read them,.. I just delete them lol.
People are always thinking up ways to scam others, it is rather frightening and downright annoying.
I’m a bit cynical especially when someone is really trying hard to sell me something. The point of it is, if I don’t want it, nothing is going to make me do anything to get it.
I like to think I wouldn’t fall for any of these scams, but the truth of it is that I probably will fall for one at some point in time.
I haven’t heard of this scam before. Ugh it never ceases to amaze me the lengths that people will go to in order to scam others.
This is where bad spelling can be a good thing. Sets off the alarm bells.
I get at least a half dozen email scams daily. Although the number is higher after the amazon hack.
You would think they would learn to spell. Since they keep trying someone must respond.
These scammers are just plain annoying.
These scams are annoying
Yes. This was helpful!!
It amazes me when these things happen! I just don’t understand it.
Love all the contests.
interesting, can’t wait to read more.
I had not heard of this one. Ridiculous
This is one scam that hasn’t made it to my inbox yet.
I don’t open anything until I ask the person who supposedly sent it if they actually did. I usually just delete them too.
Can’t wait to read Photo Finish
amazing fun going on w/this contest w/fellow authors
I get them in my spam and I delete them.
Great article and something to keep in mind. Fortunately, my Norton security program filters that crap to the spambox! But, like bad pennies, they keep coming back. I think with spelling issue is more of a translation issue. Most of that crap seems to originate in foreign countries.
I don’t like to open them at all – just in case they have one of those :Silly person actually opened this scam” notice!
Not opening something you think is spam is a great way to stay safe, Karin.
Just found the scam e-mail that I deleted, in my trash. Isn’t there a federal USPS fraud site to send this e-mail to for their checking?
Hi Marie, according to the USPS, you can report spam emails to the Postal Inspector using the address spam@uspis.gov. You can also report to the IC3 (Internet Crime Complain Center) at http://www.ic3.gov, where they have a complaint form.
Hi Brit, sorry to hear you got taken in. Yours is exactly the set of conditions that make people vulnerable to this one. I’d suggest immediately updating your virus/malware program and then running a scan. If you didn’t click any links or take any actions while you were on the site in Italy, you are probably pretty safe. However, it never hurts to be sure. Also, if you’re on a Mac and don’t have a virus checker, look for ClamXav. It’s a great (and free) program that will scan for viruses and malware. Installation can be a bit daunting, but it’s worth it. Best of luck!
So, I usually would never fall for this sort of thing, but I received one today and did. My boyfriend is traveling and it isn’t at all uncommon for him to overnight or send packages. Because I live in an apartment, they don’t get left. It was on my iphone, there were no typos, and I just assumed that he have my email when sending something. Any advice on what to do after? I realized it when it took me to a link in Italy. Now I’m nervous…
Spam uses bad spelling on purpose to weed out the people who are smart enough to fight back. If you are dumb enough to think the USPS misspells words in its notices, then you are a good candidate for receiving and acting on spam.
Interesting perspective, Malcolm. I tend to think of it as being written by those who are not native English speakers. With so much of it being a copy of an original, it’s hard to say whether there’s a psychological purpose behind their errors. Who knows, you might be right. What we do know is that far too many people still fall for this stuff.
Received 3 just today. Annoying!
You’re right Shar, there are a lot of these being sent out right now. I also noticed a new one today, but couldn’t get to it. Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll write about the “you asked to join our site” emails.
Brilliant! It never ceases to amaze me how offshore scammers like these can’t seem to use spellcheck. At the very least they could rip a notice like this from the USPS and tweak accordingly.
I’m just glad they don’t think to do that. Otherwise, it would be much harder to ferret out the fakes. 😀