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Taking advantage of the online sales this holiday season? Watch out for these delivery scams!
As our love for online shopping continues to grow, so too does the number of scams that aim to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers.
So, if you're among those who took advantage of the best Cyber Monday online shopping deals or are expecting a delivery from your Black Friday haul, be on the lookout for this delivery scam.
The holiday season is a great time to do some online shopping and snag some amazing bargains. In Australia, consumers were predicted to drop $6.2 billion on Black Friday sales as more than 11 million shoppers took advantage of the price drops.
But for scammers, the holiday season is also an opportunity to trick people into giving up their money.
According to a recent survey by cybersecurity company NordVPN, nearly 7 million Australian shoppers have fallen victim to online scams. And with many Black Friday sales taking place online this year, Scamwatch is warning those expecting a package to be extra vigilant.
Stay vigilant this Christmas, members! Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko in Pexels
Australia Post has confirmed that it is aware of fraudulent text messages being sent by scammers as part of this latest scam, which prompts customers to click on a link to ‘update their information’.
These scam messages often come from an 'AusPost' sender ID, but do not fall for it! Even though these texts seem like they’re from Australia Post, there are ways to spot the difference between the real and the fake.
One example of a real Australia Post text may read like this: ‘Your parcel from [name of brand] is coming today. If nobody’s home, we’ll look for a safe place to leave it.’
And then a tracking number will be included in the message in this format: ‘Tracking: https://mypo.st/’
Meanwhile, the scam text will appear like this: ‘15/11/2022 We couldn’t contact you regarding your order.’
And then, it will ask you to update your information and send you a message with a link similar to this: ‘please update your information: https://aushort.net/’
Make sure to take the time to read the messages from AusPost thoroughly. Credit: Mikhail Nilov in Pexels
Once you click on the suspicious link, it will lead to a fake Australia Post website designed to steal personal and financial information. But in the scam message, notice how the ‘tracking number’ from the scammer is different from the one sent by Australia Post.
Scammers can send messages using legitimate sender IDs. Credit: Australia Post
Australia Post also reiterates that it will never:
- Call, text or email you asking for personal or financial information including password, credit card details or account information.
- Call, text or email you to request payment.
- Ask you to click on an email link to print off a label to redeem your package.
We wrote an article on how to recognise more of these scams this holiday season, and how to protect yourselves against these frauds. You can read more about them here.
