They're only like 18mo late on this one. So far I've seen USPS, FedEx, DHL and UPS flavors of this scam.
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
364 points (97.4% liked)
News
23287 readers
5111 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
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
load more comments
(1 replies)
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.
load more comments
(2 replies)
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.
I've been getting these for ages now... UPS, USPS, endless scam texts all the time!
Please forward these text messages to [email protected] to help get the scam websites taken down and spam numbers blocked. Yes, you can send text messages directly to email addresses.
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.
load more comments
(1 replies)
AOL warns email users to not open attachments in any emails offering Britney Spears nude pics
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
I got one few hours ago 🤩. (I'm in Czechia so it was obviously some czech version)
load more comments
(1 replies)
I've got like 10 in the last week. Every single one has got an "eat my asshole" response.
You should also forward each message to [email protected] (yes, you can text to email addresses) if you want to help take down the scam sites and get the numbers blocked.
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
load more comments
(1 replies)
This is one of the oldest scams I know.
About a year ago I got a weirdly nervous and heavy-breathing voicemail from "FedEx" about confirming a package address for a relative that didn't even live with me. It was creepy af, it almost sounded like he was under duress
Sounds like the same scam we've had (at least in the UK) since internet connected phones became a thing.
"Hey, here's something urgent. Click the link, confirm your address, pay for delivery, oh what's that on your credit card bill?"
view more: next ›