Phishing Scam disguised as delivery tracking mail tries to befool Madison County Sheriff’s Deputy

A warning for the online shoppers has been issued by the office of Madison County Sheriff, which notifies them about a latest scam that is targeting the package deliveries. The notification instructs the online shoppers to check any email notification about tracking orders several times before opening it, as the link that is contained within the email can be misleading and fake, even if it looks legitimate.

Lieutenant Donny Shaw, who is working with the Madison County Sheriff's Office, got the firsthand experience of the scam. On November 26, 2018, Monday, while going through the emails of the department, he saw that he has received an email that appeared as if it has come from United Parcel Service (UPS) and have tracking information of five packages. As soon as he opened that email, he found that in place of giving the links to track orders, there was a Word Document link.

However, Shaw did not get carried away and didn't click on the link. The major reason for him to not click on the link was he thought he had not ordered anything online. He commented, "I haven't ordered anything that's going to be coming through UPS so I shouldn't be receiving a tracking notification". There were various other reasons for considering the mail as spam, like it was sent to an old email id, the tracking number that was mentioned on the email was not hyperlinked, and moreover, the attachment to the email was not a Word document, but most probably a link for steal his information.

Shaw further said that clicking on the link could have been so harmful that it could even result in damaging your computer. Donny Shaw added that "it could go in and start tracking things on your computer or your email or anything that you have on your phone or whatever you're receiving your email on. It could be another virus to lock your system up and hold it a ransom".

Shaw said that if someone receives such an email with tracking order information, one should first check and verify the email id of the source it is coming from, and whether it is actually from a shipping or business company. He also added that one should not randomly click on the link, until and unless he/she is doubly sure of the address. For ensuring that the link is not going to any bad website, one can hover over the link to check the source where it will go.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/13/2018