USPS Email Scam

A USPS email scam leads users to malicious computer malware.

A woman has claimed that she cant get rid of the malware that was put on her computer from a bogus U.S. Postal Service email came through.

The woman received an email with a shipping label link in it.  She clicked on the link for the shipping label and realized she may have done something wrong.  With the uneasy feeling of potentially clicking on something that isn’t trusted, she ran a computer scan and found that her device was infected with a data-stealing virus from the bogus link.

The woman said she received an email from USPS.com claiming that a package could not be delivered to her residence.

“Your parcel has arrived at May 24, 2014. Courier was unable to deliver the parcel to you,” stated the email.
“Print your label and show it in the nearest post office to get a parcel.”

The email had the link, “Print Shipping Label” to get the proper package identification, displayed at the bottom.

The real USPS email states that they do not contact customers via email if a package could not be delivered.

USPS is aware of this scam along with others like it.  They have posted a warning on their website cautioning customers about the situation.

Clicking the link activates a virus, which can steal personal information like user names, passwords, and other private data stored on your computer.

If you receive this email, delete the message and report the spam at abuse@usps.gov.

This marketing scam has already been uncovered by the Postal Inspection Service where fraudsters mask themselves as USPS employees and calling residents requesting D.O.B. along with SSN for package deliveries.

Always check suspicious emails for; poor grammar, spelling errors, funny formats, and security symbols in the url.

The email received by residents, states that a parcel has arrived “at” May 24th.  Also, the sender information on the “From” line for the email address states “donotreply?id85@kestrelgymnastics.co.uk, not a USPS.com.

It is advised for anyone who received on of these scam email to forward it to spam2uspis.gov.  Or recipients may call the postal inspection service at 1-877-876-2455.

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References:
Marquez, Homer
Fake USPS email leads to malware – MyPlainview
http://www.myplainview.com/news/article_4679a566-e6a4-11e3-b32a-001a4bcf887a.html

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USPS E-Mail Scams and California’s Most Wanted

On August 27, 2013 The United States Postal Service issued a warning about an e-mail scam targeting their customers.
These e-mails are claiming to be from U.S. Postal Service and have fraudulent information in them in an attempt to install malicious virus’ on the customer’s computer.
The U.S. Postal Service is advising to immediatly delete the message and take no further action.
They are aware of the situation and are doing their best to get down to the bottom of it.
If you have questions about a delivery or wish to report spam, the U.S. Postal Service asks that customers call 1-800-ASK-USPS or email spam@uspis.gov.

MOST WANTED Poster 296, Notice of Reward, describes the types of rewards offered by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

CALIFORNIA
Aro, Peter Medel California	Asopardo, Rondale California	Chambers, Christine Marie California	Chang, Anthony Fu Yin California
Chang, Anthony Fu Yin California – en español	Haim, Hen Ben California	Hardwick, Deyo John California	Nwafor, Leonard Uchenna California
Sayas, Abraham Santos California	Scavelli, George Louis California	Yu, Chao Qun California	Reward – Robbery. Canoga Park, CA
Carver, Robert Louis Central District of CA	Carver II, Robert Louis Central District of CA	Dada, John Olusegun Central District of CA	El Bouri, Yacine Central District of CA
Hieb, Linda Marie Central District of CA	Reward – Burglary Coalinga, CA	Reward – Armed Robbery Earlimart, CA	Reward – Armed Robbery El Cerrito, CA
Reward – Homicide Hayward, CA	Reward – Robbery Hayward, CA	Reward – Armed Robbery Hollywood, CA	Reward – Armed Robbery Hollywood, CA
Reward – Burglary La Crescenta, CA	Cardoso-Vargas, Juan Los Angeles, CA	Castillo, Brisa Celeste Los Angeles, CA	Jones, Mark Randall Los Angeles, CA
Margaryan, Khoren Los Angeles, CA – Russian	Nizomov, Giyosiddin Los Angeles, CA - Russian	Prokopenko, Viatcheslav Los Angeles, CA	Rangel, Harold Los Angeles, CA
Reward – Armed Robbery Los Angeles, CA	Reward-Att. Armed Robb. Los Angeles, CA	Reward – Robbery Los Angeles, CA	Santos, Desiderio P. Los Angeles, CA
Sharipov, Bunyod Los Angeles, CA - Russian	Stone, Jameel Los Angeles, CA	Stricker, Henry Eldon Los Angeles, CA	Stricker, Karen Lynn Los Angeles, CA
Warr, John Wesley Los Angeles, CA	Wencke, Walter Carl Los Angeles, CA	Yao, Virginia Lo Los Angeles, CA	Reward – Armed Robbery Richmond, CA
Reward – Robbery San Diego, CA	Reward – Armed Robbery Studio City, CA	Reward – Burglary Summerland, CA	Reward – Armed Robbery Sunland, CA
Reward – Robbery Venice, CA	Reward – Robbery Venice, CA - en español	Reward – Mail Theft Woodland, CA

Have you been a victim of a USPS scam?  Please let us know your experience.   The more knowledge about these scams we have, the better chance of not being victimized by these criminals.

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+


References:
U.S. Postal Inspection Service – USPS
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/
U.S. Postal Service customers targeted by e-mail scam – ABC Local News
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/consumer&id=9220989
August 27, 2013