Warnings have been raised on Twitter over a new email scam involving the brand and logo of a global shipping company.
Reporter Raffy Tima posted a screenshot that showed an email that supposedly notified him of a failed delivery request from IPS.
Beware of scams like this. They look legit. If you are expecting a delivery and you receive a notification, DONT CLICK THE LINK. Call them instead. If you are not expecting a delivery and you receive a notification, it’s an obvious scam. Ingat po tayo sa magnanakaw at kawatan. pic.twitter.com/kVuu5f24NF
— Raffy Tima (@raffytima) September 14, 2022
In the screenshot, the sender with the “IPS” logo notified Tima that they could not deliver his parcel.
They then asked him to click a link to “reconfirm” his address for the parcel shipping.
“We are here to inform you that we need an address confirmation to reconfirm the parcel shipping,” the message in the photo reads.
The format of the email looked like it came from an authentic business entity.
It has a tracking ID, a notification ID, a brand name and a logo.
The logo, however, imitates that of the “United Parcel Service”, popularly known as “UPS”, an American multinational shipping company.
The photo that accompanied the email also showed a truck with the UPS logo.
Tima warned his followers that these suspicious emails are fake.
“Beware of scams like this. They look legit. If you are expecting a delivery and you receive a notification, DONT CLICK THE LINK,” he said.
Tima urged others to call the logistics company itself for delivery concerns.
“Call them instead. If you are not expecting a delivery and you receive a notification, it’s an obvious scam. Ingat po tayo sa magnanakaw at kawatan,” he said.
Interaksyon learned that there had been other reports about this scam since last year.
In a report by the Daily Express, a UK-based newspaper, UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting center called “Action Fraud” received 1,697 reports about fake emails that allegedly came from UPS in August.
Action Fraud detailed that the emails claimed missed deliveries of packages and contained links that recipients are urged to click.
The messages also bear the “IPS” name with the copied logo of “UPS.”
Moreover, this delivery scheme was also talked about in a subreddit on scams called r/scams.
In a post on April 23, 2021, a Redditor asked the community about the authenticity of “IPS” after receiving a text message about a pending package.
In the discussion section, a Redditor confirmed that the message is a scam.
“UPS would have sued them out of existence for the logo, among other things,” the user said.
Policy of UPS
On its official website, UPS advised its clients that it does not ask for any type of personal information in an unsolicited manner via emails, texts and other means.
“Please be advised that UPS does not request payments, personal information, financial information, account numbers, IDs, passwords, or copies of invoices in an unsolicited manner through e-mail, mail, phone, or fax or specifically in exchange for the transportation of goods or services,” the company said.
It also listed the following indicators that an email or a text is fraudulent:
- Design flaws
- Poor grammar
- Misspelling
- Sense of urgency
- Unexpected requests
- Communication gaps
- Deceptive link
UPS further noted that its official URLs are “ups.com” or “international.ups.com”.
