I received this text to my phone number, then I received it again the following day. The phone number was slightly different. Both of the phone numbers had a country code of 63, wherever that is. The thing is I haven’t bought anything from anywhere, except for LL Bean and that was a month ago. I’m not expecting any foreign packages and I don’t know anyone is a foreign country, not even Canada. The US Post Office does not reach out to people in this fashion. They figure you will contact them if delayed. This is the message I received: U.S. Post: You have a USPS parcel being cleared, due to the detection of an invalid zip code address, the parcel can not be cleared, the parcel is temporarily detained, please confirm the zip code address information in the link within 24 hours. https://usps.com-tospcon.top/track (Please reply with a Y, then exit the text message and open it again to activate the link, or copy the link into your Safari browser and open it) Have a great day from the USPS team!
WoW! I've gotten this before even when I had an order out. I ignore it anyways. As far as I know, you only receive texts when signed up for alerts. The Non-USPS Team.
63 is the country code of the Philippines. When I typed "country code" into the search box, "country code 63" was the first suggestion. Seems like a lot of people are searching that one, perhaps as a result of this scam. I received the same text yesterday or the day before. What really makes me angry is the number of times my phone number and other personal information has been stolen from a company that I'm supposed to trust with my financial and health data. According to a blog about the .TOP domain. "SpamHaus indicates that nearly half of the registered .top domains are used for abuse like spam, malware and alike." Apparently the domain is managed and operated by a Chinese company. Go figure. "On 16 July 2024 ICANN issued a Notice Of Breach to the registry for failing to respond to DNS abuse reports and failing to pay fees." Again, go figure.
I have gotten the same text message many times. I also get a similar one in my emails. Nothing is safe on any server. You can bet that all your personal information is out there for anyone to see if they know how/where to look.
Unless you sign up for alerts to track specific packages, the USPS will never text you; that alone is red flag enough. I've gotten this one a few times now. It's kind of official looking but some basic logic would tell you what's wrong with it. I'm sure some people must have fallen for it or they wouldn't keep trying. Always be suspicious of any text messages from someone you don't know, no matter how official looking it is.
I used to get emails like that all the time. Lately I get text messages - Joe is this you? - or - Are we still meeting for dinner tonight? Do not respond to any of them. The scammer is trying initiate a relationship with you. The scam is called Slaughter the pig. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_butchering_scam
Or "are you still picking me up", etc. If I'm feeling spunky, sometimes I reply with "how much money do you want?" I guess the AI robot is smart enough to know that I'm not a sucker, because I never get a reply after that.
