Hotmail and Gmail users have been alerted to a fake message purporting to be from the delivery company UPS. The dangerous email was highlighted by Action Fraud, who said they had received almost 1,700 reports from the public about the message in just one week. The fake message claims that the recipient has missed a UPS delivery and that the package is waiting for them.
To claim the shipment, the person targeted by the scam is told to go to a website and enter their personal details.
But it’s all part of an elaborate scam to steal personal information from the victim. The websites to which email users are directed are designed to collect personal and financial information, which can then be used to commit identity fraud or steal money from the victim.
Alerting people in the UK to the scam, Action Fraud on Twitter said: “Action Fraud received 1,697 reports in one week of fake emails purporting to be from UPS.
“The emails claimed that the recipient had missed a delivery and had a package waiting for them.
“The links in the emails are designed to steal personal and financial information.”
Action Fraud, which is the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, also revealed an example of a fraudulent email. And there are several clear giveaways that email is not what it seems.
The first clear sign that the email is fake is that the logo that purports to be UPS is clearly not real – it says IPS instead of UPS. There is also a typo in the email – which shouldn’t be the case with official correspondence from well-known companies.
UPS itself offers advice on its website on how to spot fraudulent messages – with the delivery giant saying it will never ask customers to provide details such as personal or financial information in an email message.
It said: “Please note that UPS does not solicit payments, personal information, financial information, account numbers, identification numbers, passwords or copies of invoices unsolicited by e-mail, mail, telephone or fax or specifically in exchange for carriage of goods or services.”
The delivery company also offered some tips to help people spot a fraudulent message.
UPS said these errors could be a sign of a fraudulent message…
Design flaws – email containing distorted or incorrectly sized logos
Poor grammar – grammatical errors and excessive use of exclamation marks
Spelling errors – misspelled words or links to changed websites
UPS added that messages that convey a sense of urgency and have unexpected requests can also be a sign of fraud.
If you check for all of these things but are still not sure if the message you received is genuine or not, the best thing to do is to contact UPS directly.
Although this will take a little time, it will save you a lot more wasted time and stress caused by falling victim to such a scam.
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