Consumers Cautioned of Scam E-mail Abusing Name of USPS

Security researchers have lately alerted that e-mail scammers are misusing the name of USPS (United States Postal Service) for gaining admission into people's sensitive personal data, thus published postalnews on November 18, 2011.

Displaying the subject line "USPS Delivery Failure Notification," the fake electronic mails have a spoofed sender's address such that the messages appear to originate from info@usps.gov. Moreover, the e-mails notify recipients that because of a wrong address given, USPS couldn't hand over the parcels, which they sent some days back. Subsequently, by directing recipients for viewing a given attachment having the shipping mark, the e-mails say they can gather the parcels from a post office whose name, however, is not mentioned.

Furthermore, the e-mails provide a web-link, which recipients are directed for clicking so they can know the time the parcel was handed over. However, postal officials caution netizens that they shouldn't follow the web-link.

For, by doing so, they can contract a harmful PC-virus that can filch their private data including usernames and passwords as well as crucial info related to the financial accounts from their PCs.

Meanwhile, officials from the Post Office at Kapa stated that the scam apparently circulated 2 months back and had surfaced yet again.

The e-mails, which have spelling mistakes and/or weak grammar, tell recipients to act immediately else they could be severely affected. Also, they try to grab personal information by posing as info re-confirmation e-mails, while provide certain web-link apparently for knowing the particulars.

Significantly, USPS stated that recipients of the e-mails must just erase the messages, let alone do anything via replying to them. The company released a press statement assuring that its Inspection Service was doing much towards solving the problem as well as blocking the malware.

Describing the above fake e-mail campaign, the security researchers stated that it resembled one telemarketing scam, which USPS' Inspection Service disclosed, wherein scammers pretending to be USPS employees duped residents into divulging their Social Security Numbers and birth-dates as necessary information for handing over their parcels.

Furthermore, they urged consumers for forwarding the e-mails to abuse@usps.gov and thereby notifying the messages as spam.

Related article: Consumer NZ Website Encounters Hack

» SPAMfighter News - 11/30/2011