If a text message about a supposed package delivery issue leads to a website that was designed to look like USPS.com, but is not USPS.com, then it’s a…
Fact Check
Consumers should beware of a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) text message “smishing” scam that sends unexpected alerts about a supposed package delivery issue. “Smishing” is the term the Postal Service uses for a kind of text message fraud, combining both SMS (an abbreviation for “Short Message Service“) and phishing into one word.
Such scams seek to compromise personal and financial information. Never click the links in these text messages. The best course of action is to delete them. The incidents can be reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), which “protects the U.S. Postal Service and enforces the law that ensure public safety within the nation’s mail system.”
How the Scam Works
The Postal Service text message scam usually claims there’s an unspecified problem with delivering a package, and, because of that issue, it “cannot be delivered.” In order to resolve the issue, the messages ask for payment or fees (sometimes $1.99 or $3), and for the recipient to update their personal financial information on a scammy website.
The texts usually include a link to one of these scammy websites that might show letters from the USPS acronym, such as “USP,” in its URL. Such websites have been designed to look just like…
