The holiday season is upon us, and with it comes great fun and excitement. One industry that sure gets a lot of attention at this time of year is the postal and delivery services, from Christmas cards to holiday packages – many of us rely on them to make this whole holiday season happen. Unfortunately, it looks like an old Canada Post scam is back and making its rounds.
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I want to start by saying that while I am focusing on a Canada Post scam, it’s certainly not something that is unique to Canada! If you’re one of my readers from another area of the world, such as the UK or the United States, consider this a warning to you as well! There are plenty of people out there that are looking to prey on others during the holiday season. It’s important that we are always diligent and think investigate all details before giving out any type of personal information or clicking on any suspicious links.
It works like this: the intended target receives an email from someone who sets up their email with the name ‘canadapost.ca’ or some other official looking. They may even use an official logo somewhere in the email to make it look official. The email warns about difficulty delivering your package, stressing the importance of setting up an alternate delivery date or some other official request. They may even have a super official looking web address, but don’t be fooled!
Here’s the email I was sent:
Let’s break it down….
While the email address states that it comes from ‘canadapost.ca’ if you go to a view that shows not just the name of the sender, but also the email address, you can see that it actually came from ‘Viktoria@septakey.biz’.
The email headline states that this is the third shipment notification, although I haven’t received anything prior to this point. Canada Post themselves released a statement on their website regarding these emails advising that they will not use email as a notification option unless specifically requested. The standard practice is to leave a paper notification in your mailbox or on your door.
In the body of the email, it states that they attempted to deliver a package on November 14th. Here’s the catch – I work from home and my home office is right by the front door. In fact, I can see my front door and my mailbox from my desk. No one came by to deliver a package.
Finally, the web URL that they include LOOKS official. It has the appearance of being a page on the official canadapost.ca website. This is to lure you into false security, believing you can click it to check out what this is all about. What they’ve done is attached a different URL to the text. It’s simple, something anyone can do.
Watch…. www.canadapost.ca/officaldeliverydocuments
If you click on that link, you’re not going to be delivered to a Canada Post website at all. It’s going to take you to my Contact page. In the same way, they altered the hyperlink to take you to their spam site. One easy way to determine this is to right click on the link and click ‘copy link’. In this case, the email I was sent brought me to:
http://akliquefiednaturalgas.biz/lololololol/trolololo/index.php?id=17090 (hyperlink removed so that no one accidentally clicks on this)
Why am I sharing this? With the influx of packages being shipped for the holiday season, there are a lot of you that will likely be ordering something or receiving gifts from friends. In fact, in the coming days, I’m going to post recommendations of gifts, stocking stuffers, etc. that can be ordered online.
As an influencer, it is our job to share true, honest and accurate information with our readers. While many bloggers may believe that this ends with their product reviews, I believe that this should apply to all areas of our lives – including keeping you safe about a potential scam I may be helping to set you up for. I would HATE to hear that someone ordered something as a result of a recommendation I post only to fall victim to a scam like this.
Often these scammers are all but untraceable. Even if authorities are able to track down the person responsible or shut these scams down, others will simply step up and take their place. I’m not saying don’t report scams if you come face to face with one, you definitely should, but there’s a bigger step we can take to keep our friends and family safe. SHARE THIS INFORMATION! I’m not saying you have to share this post specifically if you want to share the Canada Post link above, go for it! Write your own if you feel so inspired… but get this information out there. The more informed we are, the better equipped we are to protect ourselves.
Have you ever received a similar scam email? What steps do you take to keep yourself safe during the holiday season?
So awful that people do this, especially around this time of year. I feel like most younger people know to check for this kind of thing but I worry about older people being tricked in situations like this. I get emails like this all the time from people claiming to be from iTunes or PayPal x
Sophie
http://www.glowsteady.co.uk
It’s so sad to hear of people getting scammed, especially this time of year!
It’s such a shame that people perform scams like this, I know I’ve got my fair share of scammy emails regarding payments on the Itunes store, insurance and god knows what else! Especially when it comes to gifts and the festive time of year I can see how people would need to be even more vigilant. Thanks for sharing and raising more awareness x
I hate that they target a time of year where everyone is simply trying to spread joy and happiness – the one time of year you’d like to assume things are safe
This is bloody awful, I get so many of these coming from iTunes and it’s so bad! I can’t believe people would stoop so low as to do this.
Love, Amie ?
The Curvaceous Vegan
I don’t know how these people sleep at night. I know I would’t be able to be okay with ripping people off in this way.
It’s such a shame that people think it’s okay to scam others; and it really great that you shared this. I’m not based in Canada but I still find it really interesting and it’s so educational sharing this x
Wherever you live, I’m sure that there are similar scams sadly. As much as I wish that weren’t the case…
It’s sad to know people really do this. I strongly believe that what’s goes around definitely comes back around. This is why it’s important to catch these things early!
I know, it breaks my heart to think about the people who will fall victim to something like this…
It’s so horrible that people go out of their way to do things like this and especially at this time of year when people are sending gifts or ordering gifts, etc. I’ve not heard of any that go on here but there may have been in the past!
Vikki | http://planetvikkiblog.wordpress.com
I will honestly never understand how people can take advantage of others in this way…