With many of us buying our Christmas gifts online the public platform against internet crime Safe on Web warns of a big increase in the number of criminals sending emails purporting to be from couriers or the post office. This week alone Safe on Web has received thousands of reports of phishing mails being sent. Sometimes scammers send out as many as 600 mails in just one hour.
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More than 600 reports of phishing in just one hour
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The Christmas and New Year period is traditionally a time during which we give gifts to our family and friends. Increasingly we are ordering gifts online and internet criminals are all too aware of this. The phishers send out mails purporting to be from parcel delivery companies or the post office. The mails state that the delivery of a parcel has been suspended or delayed.
Safe on Web’s Communications Manager Katrien Eggers told VRT News that "Messages purporting to have been sent by Bpost, DHL, Amazon or Bol.com stand out during this time of the year". Anyone that receives suspicious emails can forward them to Safe on Web.
Ms Eggers told VRT News that more than 600 reports were received in just one hour on Wednesday. The reports concerned an email purporting to be from Bpost, that warned the recipient that delivery of their parcel had been suspended.
It was obvious that the email hadn’t been sent by Bpost. "The logo was wrong, the @pyf.bpost.com domain is not Bpost's and a delivery service wouldn’t use so many exclamation marks in a mail. A large "schedule your delivery" button in the mail directs you to a bogus web page where attempts are made to collect all sorts of personal information."
Don't click, follow your parcel yourself
Katrien Eggers stresses that no matter how impatient you are you should never click on links in the emails certainly never disclose personal data or make any payments. If you are curious about when your parcel will be delivered, you should use your personal account in the web shop where you made your purchase or at the delivery service with whom your parcel has been sent to track your delivery.
The various courier services also have track & trace pages on their websites on which you can follow you parcel.
If you have any doubts about a message (email or text) you have received, you should report it to suspicious@safeonweb.be.